The Cabbagetown Reunion Day Festival

A Proclamation…

For over 50 years, The Cabbagetown Reunion Day Festival has been an uninterrupted annual display of Cabbagetown’s love for its people. The idea began in the early 1970s, when mill-era residents sought to maintain connections with their close friends, many of whom were departing as The Mill started its decade-long decline.

Old Cabbagetown was more than just a bunch of houses with faceless, nameless people. It was a community. It was a Family – mostly metaphorically, but many times literally: generations from the same bloodlines existed here. The loss of one person sent shockwaves rippling across the neighborhood – from Boulevard to Pearl. Today, this Family has endured a near-total exodus that has driven loved ones to other towns, cities, and states. They have experienced their own diaspora.

And today, there is a New Cabbagetown. A new community. Another STRONG community. A collection of people who have come to love the neighborhood for the same reason as the past residents: we’re Family. And when one of us leaves, a piece of us goes with them.

This is no high school reunion. Nothing that banal. It is a merging of worlds that occupy the same space. A time to appreciate the Past, while enjoying the Present and rejoicing in the knowledge that Cabbagetown is forever.