The most unique festival the city has seen comes to Barrie’s lakeside this weekend and organizers feel it will only grow from here.
The Medley Food and Drink Festival hits the Southshore Centre and Park this Friday, July 20 until Sunday, July 22. The event will feature over 60 vendors with many different foods and drinks from celebrity chefs and distilleries around Barrie and Ontario.
Medley co-founder Phillip Moore stopped by the location for a last-minute look and told BarrieToday that he feels this first-time event has been done right and he hopes everyone enjoys it as much as he has enjoyed getting it going.
“I spoke with someone last week and they asked if I had done everything I could to promote the event and if you have you can sleep at night; I sleep soundly at night because I know myself and team have done all we can,” said Moore. “Our social media has been very active, we have hit every medium locally and outside the area as well as the word of mouth that has been getting back to us; people are excited and they should be with this event.”
The excitement may be over the many types of food that Medley has at the event. While there will be Barrie festival staples like burgers, pizza and poutine, there are also vendors with flavours not usually seen by Kempenfelt Bay on a regular basis including using marijuana, which promises to popular with the October legalization just a few months away.
“We obviously have our local favourites coming out and those who are loved at these events, but we have cool stuff like oysters, artisan cheese and staying topical, we will have The Green Chef who teaches you how to cook with marijuana; that promises to be different and educational,” said Moore. “Something else that I’m personally stoked for is that we will be the place where St. Louis Bar and Grill will debut the packaged version of their very popular dill sauce; I’m such a huge fan of it and we’re very honoured that they chose Medley to unveil the product.”
One of the popular events in the city is Ribfest, which had a successful weekend recently. Moore says that he noticed one of the cool aspects of ribfests around the province was the competition part where customers can vote for their favourite ribs and it seems interactive.
“With the large amount of vendors we have we will be handing out awards throughout the weekend based on different specifications,” said Moore. “Everybody loves a competition and when you have so many categories it makes it even more fun. We have different wines and craft beers and all types of spirits but also in the food category we have the Battle of the Burger, best food truck and best in show which just means folks are going to want to try so many different foods which everybody loves.”
For those looking for something more to do at the event, Medley has you covered. Ax-throwing, a car show, a kid’s zone, an antique boat show, cooking lessons and five live bands throughout the weekend will keep you busy no matter what your likes are.
“I think that was a very conscience decision by the team was that if we’re going to have so many different vendors with unique food and drink, we have to supply a different entertainment atmosphere as well,” said Moore. “A boat show and car show were high on the list as was ax-throwing and cooking lessons, but we’re very excited about the musical acts as we have Fish Head, Community Soul Project, Dirty Little Swing Thing, Candice Sand and Northern Harbour who cover Jimmy Buffett; Jimmy Buffett by the lake with drinks is the perfect night as far as I’m concerned.”
Moore runs his own business and travels the world doing so, but his love of food and entertaining friends and the community he grew up in is his passion with Medley. As is the case with any goal-oriented person, Moore doesn’t expect his festival dream to end on July 22 when everything is done and packed away.
“My Medley partner Jeff Atley and I are both entrepreneurs and very ambitious so pending that this goes the way we hope it does, we do have plans to expand to Collingwood and Muskoka next year,” said Moore. “We really want to make this a branded event that can travel and our area up here in Barrie and around us is perfect for an event like this.”
The festival will also be raffling off huge prizes such as a trip for two to Cabo, a $5,000 landscaping package and a hockey stick signed by the 2017-18 Toronto Maple Leafs.
For more information, times and tickets, head to the website.
