Banditfest Youth Festival wrapped up this weekend in Owen Sound and had another great turn out.
Co-Organizers Olive Boroski and Sydney Pettit say this festival is a great space for the youth to get together and connect.
“It was nice to see kids bond over music, because it’s really important and everyone was just having a good time,” says Pettit. “Even in the hot sun, even in the night venue, everyone was just having a good time. No one was left out, people were really connecting over their love of music.”
The festival is created by the youth with support from The United Way to celebrate youth created music.
“There’s not a lot of youth events just catered directly to youth, and it’s nice to give them a space that can also cater directly to them because we are youth and we understand what it’s like, because once again, we are youth,” says Pettit. “It’s just really nice to give young kids a space to just be themselves and bond and connect.”
They had nine bands performing in the River District downtown, great weather and multiple vendors,
“Thank you to everyone who keeps supporting these events, we’ve had grants, we’ve had sponsors, we’ve had amazing people and we couldn’t do it without them,” says Boroski. “Start, slash, continue to support the youth in your community because they’re the people that are gonna be supporting your children. They’re gonna be active members of society and if we’re going to grow up in a world, we want to have a world that prioritizes creative spaces, and we can start with the kids.
“These people are are gonna run everything one day, we gotta bring everyone together,” Pettit added.