It's a summertime tradition in the Sunshine City and beautiful weather made for a perfect weekend for the 55th annual Mariposa Folk Festival.
More than 24,000 people attended the festival in Orillia this year, with some coming from as far away as Newfoundland.
"It’s just a wonderful experience to have thousands of people in a park to listen to music from all over the world," says Mary Shortall.
“There’s a zero vacancy rate in our accommodations and hotels, the downtown is bustling. Collateral spending is about $2.3 million for the community," says festival spokesperson, Pam Carter.
While the festival is good for business, organizers are doing everything they can to also help the environment.
This year, the festival partnered with the Ministry of the Environment and Ryerson University to go green.
"The festival creates an enormous amount of waste, and just the sheer impact of this many people in one spot is huge, so anything you can do to divert landfill or increase people’s awareness is only going to be good," says Dr. Rachel Dodds.
Vendors can only serve on compostable plates and no water bottles are sold at the festival. Attendees can re-fill at water stations, saving nearly 90 per cent of this weekend’s waste from hitting the landfill.
"I think it's about time that somebody took charge and decided let’s do this the right way.”
