Rae Spoon and others featured in first Fortnight Festival

When Nicole Dyble and Sam Decter relocated from Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie less than two years ago, the pair immediately dove into the area’s arts and culture scene with both feet.

The pair opened the Gore Street Cafe (located at 164 Gore Street) offering intimate music performances, community and culture workshops, and delectable locally sourced food.

“We’ve always been community-minded, social justice-minded, and we love the arts. It seems like a really good place to be doing those things,” Dyble told SooToday. “I feel like we were lucky to immediately connect with lots of others doing similar work when we got here.”

This past February, the Gore Street Cafe hosted the inaugural month-long Fishbowl Festival of Community, Food, Arts and Culture.

While running 40-plus events throughout the festival was exhausting, Dyble said the experience was very rewarding and a lot of fun.

So much so, that Dyble and Decter are doing it again on a slightly smaller scale.

Starting June 15, the Gore Street Cafe is pleased to present the Fortnight Festival.

The two-week-long event will feature live performances from Rae Spoon with Hearts Right In and Rihkee Strapp on June 17, The Mayhemingways with Blue Moon Marquee on June 22, and The Fox Who Slept the Day Away with Telephone and Address on June 29.

There will also be a family block party in the parking lot behind the former Princess Theatre which will include pay-what-you-can food and refreshments, kids activities, and family games.

For a complete list of festival events, please click here.

“We saw that there were a lot of great upcoming shows within those two weeks in June, and we wanted to tie them all together,” said Dyble “We wanted to make sure they were promoted well to get people excited. We added a bit of community programming as well.”

Dyble and Decter are using the opportunity to draw visitors to the neighbourhood despite its current state of construction.

Road reconstruction on Gore Street is expected to last until October, but visitors are reminded that all Gore Street businesses are open as usual.

Fortnight Festival passes are $25, admit holders into all associated events, and are available now at the Gore Street Cafe.

Individual event admission fee range from $5 to $15.

For more information about the Fortnight Festival and all other Gore Street Cafe initiatives, visit them on Facebook, stop by 164 Gore Street, or call 705-575-3305.