Decorated boats, paddle boarders, decorated ducks and makeshift cardboard boats manned by high school students gathered at the lagoon in Bristol Borough on Friday afternoon in celebration of the annual Delaware Canal Festival.
What seemed like hundreds of people gathered on the open space around Lagoon Park and surrounding areas to watch the parade of decorated boats and eat from the bevvy of food trucks sprawling from the water.
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For about six years these canal festivals have been held in Bristol Borough, Morrisville, Yardley and New Hope. For three of those years, the festival has been in Bristol Borough with the help of Bristol Borough: Raising the Bar.
Susan Taylor has been involved with the other major cosponsor of the event, the Friends of the Delaware Canal, for more than 20 years. Now she is the executive director of the organization and participates in events the organization puts on regularly. In addition to the annual canal festival, there is advocacy, fundraising, education programs about the canal and canal walks.
The festival is away to bring awareness about the canal more into the public spotlight, Taylor told LevittownNow.com.
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“It is meant to raise awareness about the canal and also be a very good time,” Taylor said. “It really is just a lot of fun, and that makes it all worth it.”
The crowd flocked around the lagoon watching themed boats like Snoopy’s dog house, Alice in Wonderland, Candyland and more. After three judges decided the winners of the decorated boats, high school students raced in homemade cardboard boats.
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Raising the Bar was responsible for bringing the food trucks, while the Friends of the Delaware Canal brought the rest of the entertainment.
“This is a wonderful community activity and it gets bigger every year,” said Bill Pezza, president of Raising the Bar.
As long as the canal festival finds Bristol as a home, it will have Bristol organizations like Raising the Bar’s support, organizers said.
