Pembroke, Ont.'s Fiddle and Step Dancing Championships cancelled for 3rd straight year

Cancelled because of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, the Fiddle and Step Dancing Championship that takes place in Pembroke every Labour Day weekend was cancelled for a third consecutive year. This time, due to inflation.

Organizers of the event say they had to make the call early back in March when they realized the revenue needed to sustain the event might not be there.

"As we were getting closer to the two-dollar mark, we started to get emails coming in from different groups saying they weren't attending this year because of the gas prices and inflation," explains Rhodina Turner, secretary for the Pembroke Fiddle and Step Dancing Championships.

"So when you're losing 40 to 60 trailers right off the bat, we started to think if we could generate enough revenue to pay for our expenses."

Those expenses, Turner tells CTV News, range from $60,000 to $80,000 each year.

The cancellation of the event three years in a row has left a sour taste in the mouth of those who attend religiously.

"I really miss the fact that the fiddle competition isn't happening anymore; it's a lost art," says Patti Hass, who has been attending the competition for 20 years in Fiddle Park—the nickname given to Pembroke's Riverside Park where the event is held every Labour Day weekend.

"I think regardless of the price of gas, people still need to get out and have fun. So they'll make a way to get here."

Hass was one of many who still turned out to Fiddle Park this year, despite the official cancellation. She believes the spirit of the weekend is with those who gather in the park to play music.

"The fiddle competition is really important for the people that are competing, they need that," says Hass, "and for us it's just being up here."

It's a feeling shared by fiddler Wayne Ferguson, who travelled from Muskoka to spend the long weekend in Pembroke.

"A lot of people, they don't even go to the contest, they just enjoy what's going on in the park," said Ferguson, who attended Fiddle Park even during the years it was called off due to the pandemic.

After three years of cancellations, the are doubts starting to form over the viability of the event's future.

"It's probably not going to be back as big as it was," says Ferguson, reluctantly.

"But I still think there will be a lot of people that will come back. Even this is all sold out," he says referencing the trailers filling Riverside Park. "You couldn't get more people in."

Turner says, despite concerns, the Fiddle and Step Dancing Championships will return in 2023.

"We want this contest to continue," Turner tells CTV News.

"It's a matter of taking this year and looking at ways and cost saving measures that we can use in order to keep this going."