On 1July2024 I had the surreal pleasure of marching in the annual Niagara-on-the-Lake Cake Parade. It has been a Canada Day fixture for some two decades now.
Queen Street is cordoned off and several thousand line it. Yes the drums of the 41st Fife and Drum Corps Regiment can be heard way down Queen Street and the excitement mounts. Finally the drum corps appears in period costume flutes a piping and drums a banging. A huge cake that required some 17 hours of baking by Willow Cakes and Pastries (at their own expense) is right behind the corps and the parade twists into Simcoe Park and I find myself marching right behind the cake! How did that happen?
In front of the bandstand the town crier announces something but there is so much happy noise what did the man say? The cake comes to rest and the crowd breaks into the national anthem “Oh Canada” and there is tremendous applause.
Niagara-on-the-Lake is a small town overwhelmed in summer months by week-end tourists, mostly day trippers slurping ice cream, and on the week-ends loses much of its small town identity and the Cake Parade injects some true small spirit into its busiest week-end of the year.
Just put marching in the annual Niagara-on-the-Lake Cake Parade on your bucket list.
You may have missed the Cake Parade but it is still not too late to make plans for the Niagara-on-the-Lake Cherry Festival on 6July2024 and Peach Festival on 10August2024.
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