The sweet smell of blueberry pancakes was in the air at the annual Blueberry Bash on Saturday at the new downtown market.
Volunteers with the 28th annual Greater Sudbury Blueberry Festival, along with employees of the Sudbury Credit Union, the event's main sponsor, served the food. Free wagon rides, live music and temporary tattoos were also available to visitors.
Mimi Wiseman, CEO of the Sudbury Credit Union, served blueberry pancakes with her staff all day and said the Blueberry Festival is a special event because it has activities in just about every part of the city.
"Getting involved in the community is really what we're all about," she said.
John Lindsay, the festival's chair, said market vendors had told him in the past that the annual Blueberry Bash doubled the number of visitors to the market.
Lindsay visited the event Saturday morning, though, and said the number of visitors seemed smaller than in past years, and that could have been due to the new market's less established location.
Still, parking was in short supply Saturday and Sophie Vaillancourt, the festival's event co-ordinator, noted they had a good crowd.
The Greater Sudbury Blueberry Festival was established in 1985 at the behest of then Sudbury Mayor Peter Wong, who saw it as an opportunity to promote more tourism in Sudbury.
Before Sudbury's environmental rehabilitation, blueberries were among the few things that grew well on the parched moonscape. Lindsay said the high amounts of sulphur in the air burned the landscape, but blueberries do well in acidic soil and prospered.
The festival has since promoted Sudbury as the world's wild blueberry capital.
"Our best above-ground natural resource -- free for the picking -- is the blueberries," said Lindsay.
Lindsay added the festival has managed to punch above its weight with a small team of volunteers and limited funding.
"It is pretty much a bare bones operation," he said.
Sponsors like the Sudbury Credit Union have helped ensure the festival's endurance for nearly three decades.
The sweet smell of blueberry pancakes was in the air at the annual Blueberry Bash on Saturday at the new downtown market.
Volunteers with the 28th annual Greater Sudbury Blueberry Festival, along with employees of the Sudbury Credit Union, the event's main sponsor, served the food. Free wagon rides, live music and temporary tattoos were also available to visitors.
Mimi Wiseman, CEO of the Sudbury Credit Union, served blueberry pancakes with her staff all day and said the Blueberry Festival is a special event because it has activities in just about every part of the city.
"Getting involved in the community is really what we're all about," she said.
John Lindsay, the festival's chair, said market vendors had told him in the past that the annual Blueberry Bash doubled the number of visitors to the market.
Lindsay visited the event Saturday morning, though, and said the number of visitors seemed smaller than in past years, and that could have been due to the new market's less established location.
Still, parking was in short supply Saturday and Sophie Vaillancourt, the festival's event co-ordinator, noted they had a good crowd.
The Greater Sudbury Blueberry Festival was established in 1985 at the behest of then Sudbury Mayor Peter Wong, who saw it as an opportunity to promote more tourism in Sudbury.
Before Sudbury's environmental rehabilitation, blueberries were among the few things that grew well on the parched moonscape. Lindsay said the high amounts of sulphur in the air burned the landscape, but blueberries do well in acidic soil and prospered.
The festival has since promoted Sudbury as the world's wild blueberry capital.
"Our best above-ground natural resource -- free for the picking -- is the blueberries," said Lindsay.
Lindsay added the festival has managed to punch above its weight with a small team of volunteers and limited funding.
"It is pretty much a bare bones operation," he said.
Sponsors like the Sudbury Credit Union have helped ensure the festival's endurance for nearly three decades.