Two of the corridor’s summer evening series open tonight, Thursday July 23, at opposite ends of the road. In Havelock, Harmony in Havelock starts its Thursday run in Rotary Park on Industrial Drive, 6:30 to 8, weekly through the end of August. The township’s calendar lists the dates and almost nothing else, which is about the right amount of information for a summer evening in a small-town park. Up the Rideau end, Smiths Falls starts Movies Under the Stars at dusk — free, outdoors, Thursdays into the third week of August. Bring a chair.
But Saturday the 25th is the one with a proper destination: the Sharbot Lake Beach Bash, the Country Music Association of Ontario’s fourth annual beach party — live Ontario country acts, a BBQ, and a beer garden right on the sand, starting at 6pm. It’s ticketed (details here), and it’s the kind of thing you’d expect two hours from a city, not on a village beach on Hwy 38. Get there with daylight to spare — the village beach is a genuinely good one, real sand, a playground, free parking by the old railway station — and swim before the music starts.
The drive out is the rest of the day. From the Ottawa end, Carleton Place closes Bridge Street for Summerfest, free live music and vendors from 10 to 3, right where the 7 meets the Mississippi; twenty-five minutes on, Perth’s farmers’ market runs until 1 and Perth Pie Co. on Gore Street will sell you a savoury pie that beats anything in a cooler bag. Coming from the west instead, Demo Day at the O’Hara Mill Homestead outside Madoc runs 11 to 2 — 100 preserved acres, a hand-built covered bridge, and pioneer machinery that actually runs, admission by donation.
Staying the night, or up for a Sunday loop? On the 26th, the Sharbot Lake Summer Market runs 10 to 2 at the covered rink, and if you drift west down the 7, Havelock’s Stone Hall Sessions — an intimate listening-room series in the old stone hall right on the highway — goes 2 to 4. Then look at the long weekend, because it’s stacked: Tweed’s Art in the Park fills Memorial Park on Saturday Aug 1 with forty-plus artists and three live acts, free and rain or shine, and Madoc’s Outdoor ArtFest picks it up Sunday at the Art on 62 gallery. Two towns, twenty minutes apart, two days. Meanwhile the Lombardy Fair runs its 160th south of Smiths Falls, Jul 31 to Aug 2. Windows down on the way home. That’s the pitch. See you on the road.