Drums, handpan music and a sunset over Lake Ontario marked Niagara-on-the-Lake’s ninth summer solstice celebration on Sunday, after flooding washed out the larger Port Dalhousie event one city over.
As the sun dropped toward the horizon at the foot of the Chautauqua neighbourhood, people settled in with lawn chairs and blankets to welcome the longest day of the year.
The event drew some new faces from Port Dalhousie, where the region’s main solstice celebration would have marked its 28th year. Flooding at Lakeside Park forced that gathering to be cancelled.
Carla Carlson, who founded Niagara Nature Tours 30 years ago, organizes the solstice events across the region.
“Lake Port Dalhousie flooded and I couldn’t get a permit, so people are at Charles Daley Park tonight doing the same thing,” she said.
Drumming Down the Sun & Yoga in the Park invites people to take part in a sunset drum circle, with percussion instruments available to borrow. The evening began with yoga led by Rianna Reid, accompanied by Jeff Seed on the handpan.
Carlson said donations collected at the event would go to the Niagara Land Trust, a cause she chose as a founding member of the organization.
“It just seemed to fit because the solstice is all about nature,” she said. “It’s an agrarian festival, so on the longest day of the year, the crops are in and everybody feels safe and they’re warm.”
The celebration draws on Carlson’s Swedish heritage. Her great-grandparents came from Sweden, where the start of summer is marked with dancing around a maypole and giving thanks for the growing season ahead.
Loretta Pietrobon has looked after the Niagara-on-the-Lake event for the past nine years as a local representative of Niagara Nature Tours.
The event found its current home years ago, after Carlson and Pietrobon first set up at Queen’s Royal Park and discovered the sunset wasn’t visible.
“She was there with the people and they were drumming and they were drumming and they were trying to drum down the sun and they realized you couldn’t see the sun from there,” Carlson said.
Parking has become the event’s biggest challenge. A $150 fine was introduced in the neighbourhood after the COVID-19 pandemic, when residential streets near the water filled with visitors.
Carlson said Pietrobon’s work allows the celebration to span three beaches on one lake in a single night.
Pietrobon, meanwhile, hopes someone will eventually take over the local organizing.
“I’m hoping that someone will kind of step up and, well, take over,” she said.
Roughly 50 to 60 people turned out as the sky over Toronto glowed pink across the water. The sun set just after nine o’clock, and as the last light faded, the gathering fell quiet.
