Author(s):
Phillip Gordon Mackintosh* - Brock University
Abstract:
In 2002, the directors of the annual Niagara Grape and Wine Festival renamed the event the Niagara Wine Festival; re-imagining the festival as an international wine event, the board of directors desired an appropriate appellation. Public anger and controversy ensued. Chagrined Niagarans resented the deliberate disparagement of their beloved annual (and half-century old) "grape and wine" tradition. For in adjusting its branding strategy, the festival board also began realigning the folksy, local ethos of the Grande Parade. New guidelines for participation limited access to the annual procession to groups that fit the Wine Festival's new "upscale" and "streamlined" identity. Consequently, the festival's "grape and wine" centrepiece began to shadow its former glory: once-upon-a-time the grape and wine parade was two-hours long, encouraged broad, local participation, and attracted tens of thousands jolly spectators to downtown St. Catharines. In 2009, even after the board's attempts to get the parade "back to its roots," a skeptical Niagara public worries a cabal of wine-elites, serving only the interests of globalizing Niagara wineries—who do not participate in the parade—has been misrepresenting Niagara to itself in the streets during "grape and wine."
