With COVID-19 still an unfortunate reality, this year's Paddyfest in Listowel has basically been reduced to the Pot of Gold lottery for the year, with the final draw for that coming this Saturday.
Paddyfest Chair Ben Zavitz of the Listowel Kinsmen says despite the forced low key nature of Paddyfest this year, they are hosting one other event for families and businesses to maintain the Paddyfest spirit.
"We're having a home decoration for Paddyfest, so if you have kids or are one of our true Paddyfest supporters and you wanna decorate your house or business, we are offering that with gift cards for both winners of residential and business entries."
Zavitz says you can submit your entry by simply tagging Paddyfest1977 on social media, or email it to infor@listowelkinsmen.org. He says the focus now shifts on planning for next year and new ideas are already being floated around.
"Events like a bar crawl across Listowel, just being able to drop into each local business potentially, that's one of the things we're thinking of at this time. Even just the Saturday afternoon, our biggest event, the Homecoming, just thinking of how we can make that even better."
With regards to the last two years, Zavitz says it is difficult to once again not celebrate Paddyfest properly. He says he and the Kinsmen felt it was the responsible decision to once again cancel the popular event. He says however, they are very excited for Paddyfest 2022.
"This time it's happening at the Steve Kerr Memorial Arena in Listowel. Paddyfest 2022 will look even bigger and better than ever. We do wanna shout out to our local community and businesses for helping us sell out our Paddyfest Pot of Gold Lottery this year."
Again, the final draw for the Pot of Gold is this Saturday, March 20th. For more on Paddyfest, to submit photos for the decoration challenge, or even submit ideas for 2022, email info@listowelkinsmen.org or send them a message on social media at Paddyfest1977, or visit their Facebook page.
