The St. Thomas Summer Harvest Festival’s mission is simple: to have an incredible once-per-year celebration. Our event is setup to be a celebration of what people love about St. Thomas: community, summer, beauty, comradery – and music. Summer Harvest Festival is not just a music festival – it is a weekend-long manifestation of everything that makes St. Thomas, St. Thomas – and aims to have as many local residents enjoy the kinship we share and visitors experience the warm hospitality we offer.

The name ‘summer harvest’ has an appropriate definition that serves our purpose: “a time of blossoming, greatest happiness” and is widely recognized as a time in the calendar year to gather together with friends, neighbours and family to celebrate the bounty of the summer. What better way is there to end the summer than to bring together over 10,000 residents to sing, dance and laugh together?

Summer Harvest Festival will utilize a cornerstone of the St. Thomas’ beauty – Pinafore Park – as a place to celebrate ‘summer in St. Thomas’.

The St. Thomas Summer Harvest Festival would like to acknowledge that we gather on land of the traditional territory of the Anishnabek, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Ojibway/Chippewa peoples. This territory is covered by the Upper Canada Treaties.

St. Thomas Summer Harvest Festival believes in promoting litter prevention, encouraging proper waste, recycling, and compost disposal, and minimizing our impact on the natural environment in the spaces used for our events and activities.

To ensure that the St. Thomas Summer Harvest Festival maintains its commitment to leaving the smallest possible footprint on the environment, we have instituted environmental considerations such as the use of fair trade or organic food for products sold directly by the Festival, using local suppliers and locally sourced products and providing education about environmental impacts.

In addition, we are resonantly cognisant of the damage that large scale events can have on the land on which they are hosted and as a result, the St. Thomas Summer Harvest Festival is further committed to limiting events and activities that may damage the natural state of its host venue.

To implement this policy, the St. Thomas Summer Harvest Festival will derive guidance from the report produced by The Icarus Foundation “Green Festivals and Events Guide, a How To…” which includes:

• Collecting name badge holders for reuse
• Using recycled materials, reusing items and the use of biodegradable cups and plates
• Encouraging car pooling for local attendees and alternate human-powered transportation
• Making compost receptacles available in food service areas
• Use of electronic ticketing rather than paper
• The use of multiple public water stations
• Including attendees in the waste reduction process by promoting environmental awareness and informing attendees of the waste reduction and recycling programs available
• Ensuring the environmental initiative is a priority at the highest managerial levels and by communicating this commitment to all staff, volunteers, and suppliers

As the Festival grows, future consideration will be given to additional environmental protection policies in accordance with and exceeding industry standards and in consultation with local experts and partners.