A large portion of a main road in downtown Kingston, Ont., was shut down Saturday for the return of a beloved summer event.
At around 10 a.m. on Saturday, people in Kingston began to flood Princess Street for the Princess Street Promenade.
The event involves shutting down the core road from Ontario Street to Division street for the day to facilitate space for pedestrians, activities, music and more.
The decade old event takes place twice a year and Downtown Kingston Director of Events Jan MacDonald said she was excited for the return.
“We have scouts, we have the museums, we have a robotics group, a dance group, all different kinds of organizations that are downtown and you can come and visit with them, talk to them about what they do and learn more about what they do in Kingston,” she said.
Many local small businesses held sidewalk sales. There was music, face painting and even an appearance from an Elvis Presley impersonator.
Mitch Nasheim, an employee at Minotaur Games, said that he’s happy that things have returned to some normalcy following two difficult years for small businesses.
“Through the pandemic we were struggling as a business, just trying our best to stay afloat doing curbside pickup,” said Nashiem.
The street was busy through the first few hours of the event with many stopping to see a live Latin music performance.
MacDonald says that the promenade is a very valuable event for the downtown core.
“By walking the street from the top to the bottom, you really get to see and experience everything right downtown,” she said.
Saturday’s event drew likely over 1,000 people to the main commercial road in downtown Kingston, a sign of good things to come when the event returns on September 17.