ORWELL – The follow-up to the inaugural Grand Valley Summer Festival has begun to emerge in outline after the first planning meeting for the event, held by members of the Grand Valley Area Chamber of Commerce on Friday, Feb. 20, at the Grand Valley Public Library.
Chamber President Jackie Vasko-Foote handed out a schedule of meetings for the Summer and Christmas festivals and told members she would be out of town on Saturday, July 25, the day of the Summer Festival.
After receiving mostly positive feedback from festivalgoers at last summer’s event, Vasko-Foote said she had decided to try to make a few changes, most notably moving the time to 2-8 p.m., in order to avoid conflicting with the Midway Chevrolet annual car show, which will run from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. the same day.
The car show will end, and the festival will begin, with a parade – another request from attendees at the inaugural celebration, according to Vasko-Foote. This year’s Summer Festival will have a carnival/circus theme.
Parade applications are available at gvacc.biz. There is a Friday, June 12, deadline for parade participants and businesses wishing to participate in the festival, according to Vasko-Foote.
The parade route is tentatively set to begin at Leffingwell Drive and South Maple Street (State Route 45), where police can easily make Leffingwell into a one-way street to make lineup easier. The parade route will end at Gen. Chaffee Memorial Park, at North School and Park streets shortly after its 2 p.m. step-off time, according to Vasko-Foote.
The parade will feature walking participants in the first phase, then smaller vehicles, then the larger ones.
Vasko-Foote said she’s also had some conversations with the fire department regarding the possibility they could sponsor a fireworks display. She said grants and donations might be available to help with the cost, but it might have to wait until next year.
Vendors and merchants who wish to participate won’t be charged for a space, they simply put in an application, set up their table and set their own prices for sale items, according to Vasko-Foote.
In planning this year’s games and other children’s activities, the group consensus was to coordinate with the local schools, as well as clubs and organizations focused on youth.
One of the more negative feedback items was the placement and variety of food trucks, which some attendees felt were too far away from the main event, lacked variety and some had trouble finding an appropriate way to dispose of their trash after eating, according to Vasko-Foote.
This year, the chamber is seeking four or five different food trucks and plans to request those run by member businesses first, according to Vasko-Foote. The chamber may also coordinate with the Orwell Fire Department about their traditional cheesesteak sale and the Grand Valley Ruritan Club, which sells hamburgers, according to Vasko-Foote.
The next planning meeting for the 2026 Grand Valley Summer Festival is scheduled for Friday, March 20, at the Grand Valley Public Library, 1 N. School St., Orwell.
