The 39th annual Mayor’s Cup Festival and Regatta is just a week away. The four-day celebration in Plattsburgh includes numerous events culminating in the largest sailboat race on Lake Champlain. Organizers were at the City Marina to provide an update on plans.
From July 7th through the 10th there will be numerous concerts, movies, and kids’ activities in downtown Plattsburgh. It’s one of the few times of the year that the historic Macdonough Monument opens and intrepid climbers can take the 156 steps to the top for views of the lake and Champlain Valley. Trinity Park and City Hall Place are filled with food and activities.
Sunrise Rotary Club sponsors the Mayor’s Cup. Incoming President Joanne Knowlton says the festival is four days of celebrating the water, the lake, and being outdoors in the North Country. “The Regatta is the signature event. It's the largest sailing event on Lake Champlain in any part of the lake. The regatta is also not just the largest but it's really interesting in that it encompasses three divisions of sailboats. It's racing, cruising and multihull. So it gets boaters, sailors from certainly all over New England and Canada. But it just makes it all the more interesting to watch and exciting for our community to be hosting a regatta of this magnitude.”
While the regatta is competitive, the Parade of Lights brings dozens of decoratively lit boats to float along Plattsburgh’s shoreline and kick off the Mayor’s Cup festival on July 7th. Sunrise Rotary Parade of Lights coordinator Richard Jarrette: “Boaters, skippers are really going to get a chance to explore their wild and creative sides. but their start just beyond will talk to us. They’re going to start just beyond Wilcox Dock. They’re going to make, I want to say it's just a little under a mile across this little point here. We’re going to make a great show of it.”
While the Regatta and Parade of Lights are the signature events, much of the festival occurs on land in the downtown area. A weekly food, music and art festival called Downtown Rising is expanding its activities and will include a horse-drawn trolley between the waterfront and Trinity Park.
Strand Center for the Arts Artistic Programming Director Mallory Valk says they are already sprucing up the center city for the festival. “We have coordinated artists to go out and paint murals on the windows of downtown businesses to get it festive. There’s sailboats and suns and everything summer. At the Strand our goal is to have the community be involved with the arts and bring arts to the community and make it accessible so we just wanted to help beautify downtown Plattsburgh and make it a fun summer.”
Many events focus on children. North Country Thrive Director Brittany Trybendis explains how their “Get Ready to Learn” in Trinity Park will not only entertain kids, but help prepare them for school. “We are hosting actually several ‘Get Ready to Learn’ events in the area. What this event is is an awareness for school readiness and learning and reading. We will be providing lots, thousands actually, of books for all families that will be participating as well as several activities for kids and a lot of information for school readiness activities to get students thinking about what they need when they enter school.”
Other highlighted events include a firetruck pull and free luge rides as part of USA Luge’s slider search.
Here are links to Mayor's Cup information:
http://plattsburghsunriserotary.org/Page/mayor-s-cup-home
http://www.mayorscup.com/
https://www.facebook.com/plattsburghmayorscup
