From fishing to hip hop, the city's South side was celebrating fall on Saturday.
With three different events to choose from thousands of people were all over the South core. The Fort William Business District's sixth annual Fall Street Festival had the lion's share of the crowd as it shut down May Street from Donald Street to Miles and Victoria Avenue from Brodie Street to Simpson Street to celebrate the season.
"There are tons of people roaming around," coordinator Tina Huk said. "We couldn't have asked for a better day."
With more than 80 vendors, Huk said this year's festival was the biggest and best it's ever been.
"I think we've got more food booths than we've ever had," she said.
Food was the first thing on Tara Corkett's mind as she brought her family and friends from out of town to the festival. They had just finished eating foot-long hot dogs while on the way to check out the section of bouncy castles near Miles Street.
"And just walking around listening to music," she said.
Huk hopes that with 25 new businesses moving into the area that people also check out what the South core has to offer.
"There's a lot of little shops in the area that people just don't know are here," she said. "It's nice to showcase them."
And once those shops are discovered, Huk hopes that people will return to keep shopping there.
"We just hope that it continues to grow," she said.
Huk said the future is bright for the area as more and more businesses set up shop.
On the other side of Simpson Street the tenth annual Riverfest at the Kam River Heritage Park was showing off the city's past. City events coordinator Doug Murray said along with live music and a whole array of children's activities, the festival is a chance to showcase the park's VIA passenger cars and showcase Thunder Bay's other waterfront. There was also a children's fishing derby that saw moer than 60 fish caught last year.
"It's a chance to celebrate the river as well," he said. "Really it speaks to the development and history of Thunder Bay as a port city."
Unfortunately the James Whalen tugboat tours, another showcase of the city's past and a highlight of the Riverfest schedule, had to be canceled due to a recent break-in.
Over at city hall a hip hop dance party kept the crowd moving featuring performances from local DJs and rappers like Webster Death and Grimace the Butler.
