Mermaid-themed festival fills Port Lambton park with spectators

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Mermaids drew a crowd Saturday to the Port Lambton riverfront.

They were there as part of a Mermaids and Mariners festival set in Brander Park on the St. Clair River that featured about 60 vendors, food trucks, a refreshment area, live music and about 17 mermaids from near and far.

It was organized by Sherri DeWolf, with the help of sponsors, including Kern Water, and a $15,000 Lambton Creative County grant, and held in partnership with the St. Clair River Trail.

“This doesn’t happen without community,” DeWolf said.

Pirates “Captain” Chris Blair and Trish Beaton, who goes by the pirate name of “Coyote,” were helping out Saturday at the Mermaids and Mariners festival in Port Lambton. Photo by Paul Morden /The Observer

Vehicles were parked all along the St. Clair Parkway near the park that was busy with spectators.

“It’s amazing,” DeWolf said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better day and a more exuberant crowd.”

DeWolf, a mermaid enthusiast, said, “I think it’s just the magical, water-loving inspiration,” of the mythical creatures that attracts people.

Mermaids, young and old, frolic at the beach in Brander Park Saturday during the Mermaids and Mariners festival in Port Lambton. Photo by Paul Morden /The Observer

The mermaids attending Saturday “swam from waters from Toronto down to Pennsylvania,” she said.

More than 70 tickets were sold to a breakfast with the mermaids Saturday morning.

Admission was free so there wasn’t a firm count of attendance but DeWolf said it was estimated that 2,000 to 2,500 spectators visited the park through the day.

Alexsandra Johnston of Windsor, Sleepy Syrenka the Point Pelee Mermaid, was part of the Mermaids and Mariners festival Saturday held at Brander Park in Port Lambton. Photo by Paul Morden /The Observer

DeWolf said the event was organized as a nautical festival to celebrate the St. Clair River shoreline in Port Lambton. She grew up in Wallaceburg and spent time with her grandparents in Port Lambton enjoying the river.

Now she owns a marketing business and organized a similar event in Key West, Florida.

“When I came home I said, ‘We don’t do anything like that here,’” so she went to work organizing one on a “smaller scale, pun intended,” DeWolf said.

“There actually is an entire mermaid community,” she said. “If you are a lover of mermaids you usually find the groups of people who are mermaiding, or love mermaids.”

DeWolf said it’s possible to swim wearing a mermaid tail, and several demonstrated that at a beach in the park that was designated as Mermaid lagoon. Youngsters were able to try on a tail and have photos taken with the mermaids.