As summer events begin to heat up, the Downtown Cambridge BIA wants to take patio season to new highs on lower Main Street with a series of fun events, including its first Pride Week celebration in June.
“We are doing a lot of outdoor activities for people of different ages and different groups,” said Brian Kennedy, executive director for the Downtown Cambridge BIA. “We do yoga, fitness classes, game nights and different things, right now we have a benchmark of 100 events planned.”
The Downtown Cambridge BIA has been organizing the Patio Program since 2021 as a response to restaurant closures from pandemic restrictions which lead to expanded patios for people to eat outside.
The program sees the road closure of lower Main Street where shops can only be accessible by walking.
The program runs until Oct 9.
“The largest event that’s going to be coming up now is Grand River Pride Week,” Kennedy said. “Their event is on June 10 and is going to take place right here on the street. We are really excited for that, it’s going to be a really fun event.”
Pride Week will run from June 1-10 and will include a family fun day June 3 and a street party June 10 featuring music, vendors and drag queen Tynomi Banks taking over the main stage in the evening.
The expected turnout is around 500 people and Kennedy said that Grand River Pride will be here to stay with future events in Cambridge.
“We are very prideful down here, but we actually haven’t had a Pride event so this will be the first of its kind, I think we are going to have a good time,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy said that new businesses have set up shop on the street with the closure in mind.
“We did a survey with the businesses and the overwhelming majority were definitely in favour of the road closure.”
Kennedy explains that some businesses have been pushing for the idea of having the road closed permanently all year. However, the idea would lead to a new list of issues and logistics during the colder months, but the decision is still in development.
"I think people see an opportunity for us to put in a capital infrastructure that would make sense for the road closure if it was permanent kind of like a village,” Kennedy said. “There would be gateway signage opportunities and lighting infrastructure, things we can’t do now because after five months because we have to bring it back to an actual roadway.”
There will be more patios, an artificial green turf for children to play and public seating along with a more fluid space for events.
The Downtown Cambridge BIA is looking for people to help with this season’s events. For volunteer opportunities email [email protected].
