Fairport Canal Daysis back this weekend. The annual event, like many others, was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That event, which includes arts and crafts, food and music, draws thousands to the village, but Scott Winner, who is marketing director for the weekend festival said they will scale back the number of artisans and vendors, and also work to control the number of people who can attend the event.
He said there will be three entrance points into the festival and, “Those three points will be monitored, people will literally stand there with clickers, counting the number of people going in and coming out so that we can have an idea in general terms how many people are in the identified, designated festival area.” Winner said that drones will also be used to provide information about crowd density during the event.
Winner said that Canal Days provide a solid boost for Fairport businesses.
“The really important impact for us and the reason we truly do this is to benefit the local businesses and we know from doing studies that each festival we do in Fairport has an tremendous economic impact for local businesses,” Winner said.
Fairport Canal Days runs both Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 5pm. There will also be a popup COVID-19 vaccination site at the event.
