Council approves travel, professional development requests

By Tyler Waugh, The Pearl/Local Journalism Initiative

Mount Pearl council approved several items during the July 21 public meeting related to professional development and travel expenses for council members and senior staff.

Professional development requests for interim Deputy Mayor Jim Locke, CAO Cassie Rideout and councillors Isabelle Fry and Chelsea Lane to attend the Atlantic Mayors Congress taking place Sept. 11 - 13 in Truro, NS all got approval.

“This has to do with professional development and this is always important for us to move forward with our management and staff and council to go to other areas and learn more and bring it back to help our city,” said councillor Bill Antle.

Council also approved travel requests for Mayor Dave Aker and CAO Rideout to attend the Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador Urban Municipalities Committee (UMC) meeting taking place August 28-29 in Bay Roberts.

“There’s a lot of travel on the go this month, I guess,” said Antle in presenting the agenda items.

The last professional development request was for recreation and community safety director Jason Collins to attend the Corporate Event Marketing Association (CEMA) Summit 2026 Conference that took place Aug. 8 – 12 in Toronto, ON.

“This conference has a strong focus on corporate event planning. The skills and strategies shared at this summit will directly support the efforts to attract, market, and deliver successful events that maximize the use of the facilities and enhance community impact,” read an administrative summary in the July 21 agenda. “These sessions will provide actionable insights into trends, audience development, sponsorship, and event experience design that can be adapted to the City’s municipal and community focused environment.”

Council voted unanimously to approve all the professional development and travel requests. The specific costs for each approval were not provided.

Knights, knaves and damsels ready to set siege to St. David's Park

By Tyler Waugh, The Pearl/Local Journalism Initiative

Mount Pearl will be resplendent with kings and queens, knights and squires, wizards and blacksmiths, maybe even a pirate or two, as the 5th Annual Renaissance Festival Newfoundland rolls out later this month.

It’s all the brainchild of Darren Hann, a longtime attendee of renaissance fairs on the mainland who wanted to bring some of that medieval magic back to the Rock.

“It’s a great atmosphere. I got started getting a bunch of different groups together like Epoch on the Rock, they are a live action role playing (LARP) group here, and we put the first festival together,” Hann said. “It’s been well received and we are looking forward to another great time this year.”

Attendees are encouraged to dress up for the occasion. “You don’t really have to, it’s not mandatory, but it’s part of the experience and you’ll see all sorts of people as knights, fairies, kings and queens,” said Hann. “It’s a welcoming, family-fun atmosphere.”

Epoch on the Rock will once again be featured as entertainers with their live action role playing on the mainstage and there will be a Queen’s Tea featuring tea and crumpets on both days.

There will also be several period-inspired competitions from a homemade catapult contest to a heavy hammer challenge, where participants attempt to hold it up for as long as they can. This year there is also a Pirate Keg Toss on both Saturday and Sunday where participants will toss a rum keg to a set point and then back to the start.

The festival king will be on hand to knight attendees willing to enter his service. For the first time ever, that honour will also be open to furry friends of all kinds.

“Yes, we’ve had requests the past two years to see if they could knight pets, so this year will be our first knighting of the beasts,” Hann said.

Back again is the ‘Shire,’ an artisans working village that will include a cooper who crafts barrels, a leather maker, carpenters, a butter churner as well as a booth with representatives from the Newfoundland Boat Building Museum. The historical artisans will be selling their wares while showing off their crafts.

“They are all handmade items, really authentic and true to the period,” Hann said.

The festival ran for its first three years out of Paradise Park but was forced to switch venues due to the 2025 Canada Summer Games needing that space, so it landed at St. David’s Park in Mount Pearl last year.

Hann said the new venue created such a great layout that it was decided to return to Mount Pearl again this year.

“Paradise was great, nothing against them,” he said.

The festival runs Aug. 23-24 from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m., with August 23 being Fairy Day.