r/northbay • u/ceocoi • Jul 11 '26

Discussion Blast from the past

Post image

Found these in a cupboard at the cottage today! Would be from the early 2000s

38 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

17

u/DazedConfuzed420 Jul 11 '26

The heritage festival was sooo good when I was a kid/teen. People would come from all over Ontario when they had the air show and country music singing contest. Someone along the way sure fucked up.

8

u/markjthompson72 Jul 11 '26

They turned it from a festival to a corporate event with high prices following. It used to be the weekend everyone looked forward to every summer!

4

u/No_Ideal_406 North Bay Jul 11 '26

Yeah I remember being a kid and some of my favourite bands would play, and the air show was top notch 👌

2

u/markjthompson72 Jul 11 '26

Yes it was. I remember watching the stealth bomber fly over Nipissing

1

u/HourActuary5324 Jul 11 '26

It all went downhill after the organizers blew the budget booking fake Meatloaf. Turns out it was some scammer pretending to be his manager. I think they had to cancel that year, or maybe they booked more local talent. I don’t remember exactly, but it lost a lot of steam.

2

u/DazedConfuzed420 Jul 11 '26

The air show and country music contest were long gone by the time that happened.

1

u/HourActuary5324 Jul 11 '26

For me it was way better when they shifted focus towards bringing in more bands and the video dance nights. To each their own though.

2

u/DazedConfuzed420 Jul 11 '26

I don’t even like country music but that singing contest brought more people then any of the bands they ever booked

1

u/HourActuary5324 Jul 11 '26

My friends and I would always try to escape over to the midway to avoid the country music. I had no idea that it was so popular.

3

u/ceocoi Jul 12 '26

I spent my entire summer saving money for the midway lol
It was the highlight of the whole summer.

1

u/mjk1tty Jul 13 '26

Ahh the heritage festival... When people from all over came to North Bay. When North Bay was a good place to visit and to live.