‘Barrage of mosquitoes’ forces Ontario festival to be postponed

Can a festival ever have too much buzz?

A Southwestern Ontario festival planned for Friday night has been postponed because of mosquitoes.

The first Harmony and Hops Festival – an evening featuring local musicians, craft beer brewers from across the region, food trucks and vendors – was scheduled to take place during the opening night at the annual Rodney Fair.

But organizers in the town southwest of Port Stanley decided to pull the plug on the outdoor event, citing a “barrage of mosquitoes that have recently infested our community.”

“With all these rain storms we’ve had in West Elgin in the last month or so, the mosquito population is 10 times more than normal,” said Dan Balint, president of the Rodney Aldborough Agricultural Society’s board of directors.