Min Smale is the chair of the Privateer Days committee. (Rick Conrad)

It’s the celebration that kicks off summer in Liverpool with a bang.

And the organizers of this year’s Privateer Days festival hope it’s bigger and better than ever.

Min Smale is the chair of the Privateer Days committee. This is her fourth year with the event.

“We’ve tripled our sponsor dollars over last year and it’s enabled us to do a lot more than we did last year. We keep posting new things and we keep getting great feedback,” Smale said in a recent interview.

“I think everybody is going to be thoroughly excited and have a great time.”

Last year’s festival almost didn’t happen, as organizers struggled to recover sponsor dollars and volunteers after the pandemic. Smale says there’s no fear of that this year, as their budget hovers around $70,000.

They doubled their board members this year to 10. And they have about 30 additional volunteers to help run the packed event schedule over the three-day festival. 

“I don’t think we’ve ever had this many eager volunteers come and help us. It’s overwhelming in a good way.”

Big sponsors like Atlantic Lottery Corp. and Coldstream Clear Distillery have come on board to help bring back the entertainment and beer tents.

Thirty artists are lined up to keep those tents hopping all weekend.

“I think the main thing I’ve heard in the last four years was, ‘When’s the beer tent coming back?’ And so we were very fortunate to be able to partner with a Nova Scotia brand like Coldstream Clear Distillery to help us get there.”

More than 60 craft, food and clothing vendors are expected to be set up in the park for the weekend.

Over a dozen events and booths are planned for kids and families, including bouncy castles from Yarmouth Big Bounce, a foam dance party and a superhero dance party.

And the popular Pirates of Halifax will return to this year’s event.

The weekend will also feature traditional historical re-enactments, like the encampment in Fort Point with the King’s Orange Rangers.

“My big things are family friendly, creating moments, support local and drive some business into the community as well as coming together as a community.”

A centrepiece of the weekend is the parade through downtown Liverpool on Saturday morning. And this year, the grand marshal will be well-known local musician and volunteer Dick Henneberry.

Smale says having a great team of volunteers has helped make preparations for this year’s festival go smoothly.

“Come out, enjoy yourself and we try to make everything as free or low cost as possible, just so we can all come together and have a great weekend.”

Privateer Days runs from June 27 to 29 at Privateer Park on the Liverpool waterfront. A full list of events is available on their Facebook page.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below

A float from the Mersey Rose Theatre Company promoting the youth musical Alice in Wonderland, Jr., was one of the top floats in the Privateer Days parade on Saturday. (Rick Conrad)

Hundreds of people from around Nova Scotia lined the streets of downtown Liverpool on Saturday for the Privateer Days Parade.

It was part of the 39th annual Privateer Days celebration which began Friday.

The two-day festival featured the parade as well as a food and vendor market, amusement park rides and lots of other activities around town.

Float winners were:

1st place: Funky Witches of the Mist
2nd place: Mersey Rose Theatre Company
3rd place: Mersey Seafoods

Listen below for some of the sounds and reaction from the parade on Saturday