Tonight, Cobourg Council is being asked to approve two events this summer that will bring visitors to Town – on or with their bicycles.  The Cobourg Gran Prix will be in summer and will be an event in the Criterium series (more below) and will happen downtown in a circuit around downtown streets with around 150 participants.  The Great Waterfront Trail Adventure will be on Sunday July 29 with about 150 participants who will stop in Cobourg as part of a ride from Ajax to the Quebec border.  This group will mostly camp overnight in tents in Victoria Park. Both events are up for approval at the Council meeting tonight.  By coincidence, also up for approval is the rental of… Read complete articleTwo Big Bicycle Events Coming to Cobourg

The Hon. Daiene Vernile, Minister of Tourism, Culture & Sport came to Cobourg this morning and visited the Marie Dressler Museum.  The occasion was the announcement of a program of events in 2018 celebrating Marie Dressler’s 150th birthday. Daiene was suitably impressed with the Museum and with the efforts made by Cobourg to preserve our Heritage and provide things for tourists and residents to do.  Also at the event were MPP Lou Rinaldi, Director Dean Hustwick and the County’s Tourist manager Eileen Lum. Marie Dressler Foundation Chair, Rick Miller, showed the Minister the features of the Museum and finished with a video about how it came to be plus an announcement of upcoming events. Daiene remarked that we need to… Read complete articleOntario Culture Minister visits Dressler Museum

Last year saw the celebration of Canada’s 150th  birthday and Cobourg marked the occasion with a large number of special events.  To record these, members of the Northumberland Photography Club (NPC) were asked to be there and take photos. They did that and turned the photos into a video which was presented at the Mayor’s Levee on January 1st, 2018. Although there was a promise to put this on the Town’s web site, it has so far not appeared so it is now available here.  The background music is provided by Cobourg’s New Ventures Band playing the Victoria Park Overture and the project was organized by a special NPC committee: Bryan Marjoram, Jeannie Gane, Sandra Peters, Elisabeth La Fontaine, Dan Milligan,… Read complete articleCanada 150 Video

On Monday this week, there were a whole lot of trucks and a pile of people in Town working on the filming for Murdoch Mysteries. There were two filming locations: the West Beach and Third Street adjacent to Victoria Hall.  The parking lot on Second Street was reserved for the filming team, Third Street was closed from King to Albert and the West Beach Boardwalk was “closed”. Residents were in fact allowed to go on the boardwalk but would be asked to wait and not intrude during actual filming.  Photos below give an idea of the activity.  Hopefully some of the businesses in Town benefited,  e.g. the restaurants.  West Beach filming featured a horse, an old car and a temporary… Read complete articleMurdoch Mysteries Filming back in Town

Cobourg kicked off the Christmas season on Friday by turning on 130,000 lights in Rotary Park and along the waterfront. Afterwards, there was a party on King Street with live music, vendors and Santa. Starting at 6:30 with a ceremony in front of Victoria Hall, a large crowd then moved to the waterfront and with a countdown, the lights were turned on at 7:00pm. To the surprise of many (including me), there was a short fireworks display to mark the occasion. Soon after there was a live band on King Street, horse drawn wagon rides through the display and a few vendors on Second Street – although they were not there earlier. See the photos below. The DBIA also produced… Read complete articleCobourg Alive for Lights-on

On Friday November 24, Cobourg’s Christmas lights will be turned on. The ceremony starts outside Victoria Hall at 6:30 and proceeds down Second Street to the waterfront where there will be a ceremonial switching on of the lights at 7:00 p.m.  Included in the display will be wood cutouts of bears, deer, beaver and a moose.  These were created by students in the CCI woodworking class led by Shawn Davis and they were shown to the media and Cobourg Council today.  In addition to the cutouts, the school is also providing a large mural announcing “Cobourg Downtown”. This will be erected on Second Street – exact location not yet decided. Along with teacher Shawn Davis, CCI Principal Jeff Kawzenuk proudly… Read complete articleCCI assisting with Christmas Magic

November 9th is Marie Dressler’s 149th birthday so the Dressler Foundation put on a big celebration for her.  In 1931, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Min and Bill and in 1932 and 1933 she was the highest grossing actor in the world.  Last year, the Foundation completed the renovation – or rather the complete rebuild of the museum at Dressler House – see links below.  But today, the celebration featured a professionally made documentary of how the community came together to build the museum, free Marie Dressler Butter Tarts (and coffee) and then followed this with a screening of one of Marie Dressler’s earliest movies, “Tillie Wakes Up“, made in 1917.  (The Butter… Read complete articleBig Birthday Celebration for Marie Dressler