A new festival is happening in Brome that will bring outdoor enthusiasts together around various activities, workshops, and local entertainment over the Victoria Day weekend. 

The first-ever edition of the Halte Festival is co-produced by Brome Fair - which puts on the largest agricultural fair in Quebec every Labor Day weekend - and event planning company Faire-Valoir. 

Lee Patterson, one of the many people involved in the organization of the event, said that in the past, Brome Fair held what it called a "home show,” an outdoor social event, on its grounds every Victoria Day weekend. The Brome Fair team wanted to bring a new tradition to the local community all while taking into consideration the high demand for outdoors activities, and how people could use the opportunity to discover the Eastern Townships.

“What we saw during the pandemic, we even had a request during Covid, about people wanting to camp, van life, tent camping also, being outdoors. I’m sure that you have observed that paddle boarding has increased in terms of a trend, and so on,” explained Patterson. “What we’re saying is that it will be entertainment, with camping, and a little bit of education.”

Patterson said that the Brome Fair buildings and grounds are “under-utilized,” making it a great space to hold an outdoor festival for locals and people coming from outside of the area to “discover the region while having fun.” 

“You can get either three day passes or single day admittance, but in the packages and advertising that we have put out it’s to bring people to the area. We’re known for our great biking trails, the paths, we have the lake here in Lac-Brome where people can paddle board, Sutton, the vineyards,” he highlighted. “We hope that the people that come from outside to here will be able to benefit from all of the great things we have to offer, that the merchants have to offer, and the beautiful landscapes.”

He described the future hope of the Halte Festival serving as a “launchpad” for people to take advantage of other activities in the Eastern Townships. 

“From my understanding, people that like to camp often go in groups so perhaps we will have new people that will discover the area and come back during the summer. Maybe that weekend they won’t stop at Le Sapin or The Pub, but maybe a couple of weekends later they will come back and try other stuff, that’s what we are hoping,” Patterson added. “We don’t want the fair grounds to become known as a camp ground, but for this coming long weekend we feel it’s a great location to be central to a bunch of  stuff that you might want to see.”

The Halte Festival will provide people with a space to camp over the four-day long weekend with local entertainment, kiosks, and food vendors on site. Workshops and conferences are also scheduled that will cover topics such as the impact of nature on our mental health, van conversations for van life, and introduction to cooking for camping. 

“People that sell, for example, specialized food for people that go camping, different clothing, backpacks. It’s not just for ‘van lifers’ that drive around and sleep all over. (…) There will be entertainment. Liya Bombardier, she’s Friday night at 7 p.m., but at 8 p.m. there’s an outdoor movie,” mentioned Patterson. “You don’t have to necessarily be a part of the camping lifestyle to enjoy the site. There will be humour, workshops during the day, there’s a lot going on. If you like the outdoors, there will be surely something for you on the site.”

The Halte Festival is running from May 19 to May 22.

Listen to the full interview below: