Mega Worlds will be a blast on and off water
A Barenaked Ladies concert with special guest Scott Helman April 25 at the Meridian Centre signifies the unofficial countdown to the 2024 World Rowing Championships taking place Aug. 18-25 in St. Catharines.
“It’s a springboard to say we are 100 days out from the world rowing event — we are bringing the worlds to St. Catharines — and come on out,” Sport Niagara’s Dan Kennedy said. “We will have a few MCs who are in the rowing world and will talk about world rowing, the importance of it and how to be involved, and then we will get on to the concert.”
The concert follows the same idea as the Tim Hicks and Loverboy concert that was held 200 days prior to the start of the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games.
“Part of our mandate at Sport Niagara is to not only deal with sport tourism but to bring a cultural element to this. We found with the Games that when we brought the Tim Hicks/Loverboy concert in it helped,” he said. “The concert happened and that’s why people came but it allowed us to promote the event.”
As of this week, there were roughly 700 tickets remaining for the concert.
“Get them before they are gone. They are moving quickly,” Kennedy said.
The event is the first in a series of off-water events prior to and during the world rowing championships that will feature the under-23, junior (under-19) and senior world championships for non-Olympic boat classes.
Other events are the: Oar-some Summer Golf Tournament June 21 at Thundering Waters; Oars and Encore – A Celebration of Niagara’s Rowing Community July 26 at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre; the Port Dalhousie Supper Market Aug. 20 at 1 Lakeport Rd. in St. Catharines; and, the Mega Worlds Fan Festival Aug. 21-24 at Rennie Park in Port Dalhousie.
The golf tournament is also similar to what was done for the Canada Summer Games.
“We have a system and because we have such a short runway we decided instead of trying to reinvent the wheel we would do the things that worked for the Canada Games,” Kennedy said.
The golf tournament is a vendor/supplier, industry kind of event.
“It is not exclusive to them but that is who were are kind of targeting and the idea is for a sum of money they can sponsor a hole, get a foursome to play in the tournament. It is a great way to network as well as promote the event.”
Oars and Encore is a way to raise money to support the event and will feature a high-end guest performer.
“There will be a cocktail party and you will get a chance to meet some of the rowing elite and rowing alumni in the region followed by a great concert,” he said. “Again it is a fundraiser but it has a little bit more of a black tie feel to it.”
Athletes, builders and volunteers from Niagara’s rowing community will be recognized during the evening.
The summer market will be a free event featuring food trucks, live music and rowing photo-ops.
The Mega Worlds Fan Festival will include live entertainment, a 50-foot Ferris wheel, artisans, food and drinks, spectator activations and an official merchandise store. Attendees will be able to contribute to the fight against hunger through non-perishable food donations and financial support to FEED Niagara.
“Starting on Aug. 20, we are going to be turning Rennie Park into a rowing festival,” he said.
The peninsula part of the park, accessed by bridge, will be the ticketed portion of the festival and will open Aug. 17. That area will include food vendors, hospitality, other vendors, and bleachers to watch the racing.
Outside of the ticketed area and starting Aug. 20 will be a section that will host a music festival. It will be free admittance.
“It will be similar to what we did at Niagara Place at the Canada Summer Games. There will be a stage and we will be doing three live acts a day starting around 3 in the afternoon and ending at 9:30 in the evening,” Kennedy said. “It will be local talent and scaling up with a headliner in the evening.”
Highlights of the area will include: a rowing museum housed in a tent; artist David Arrigo will be finishing a nine-by-four-foot legacy mural on site; a rowing interactive area where fans can get in a scull and race against others on screen; food vendors and artisans; bar areas, and, the aforementioned Ferris wheel.
Both areas of Rennie Park will be licensed.
“We are hoping everyone down there will migrate to the park,” Kennedy said.
Sport Niagara became involved with the championships in July 2023 when St. Catharines World Rowing Inc. approached it and asked its assistance to stage the event. Sport Niagara is helping with the commercial aspects of the event including fundraising, ancillary events and all the marketing components to make the event whole.
“St Catharines World Rowing is going to manage the operations of the actual competition and we are going to supply all the stuff that goes around it,” Kennedy said.
The Sport Niagara team includes Kennedy, Vittoria Wikston, Matt Milne, Julie Johanis and Kellie Ring.
All were involved with the Canada Games and are using the lessons learned there to help stage the rowing world championships.
“We have set up a volunteer portal on the Sport Niagara website and I think we are at 750-800 people already which is great for one single event,” he said. “Certainly attrition always happens, so the more volunteers the merrier plus it is not just volunteering for the competition. We need people for Rennie Park, people to help our volunteers and the more people we have the more we can draw from and the more opportunities we can give for people to be involved in an event like this.”
Sport Niagara’s preparations have been aided by the City of St. Catharines, RowOntario, Rowing Canada and the local rowing community.
“Everyone wants to see this happen. In an Olympic year we were concerned, but everyone has pulled together to make this happen,” Kennedy said.
It is estimated 10,000 fans will attend the rowing championships and there will be 1,500-2,000 people a night at Rennie Park.
