Festival pageant in danger of cancellation after decades-long run

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The Miss Salmon Festival pageant, which dates back to 1967, is in danger of being cancelled this year due to lack of participants.

As of this week, only four young women have stepped forward.

“We have done the pageant with as few as seven but ideally I would love to have 10 to 12,” said Stacy Doiron-Laviolette, the pageant organizer since its return following cancellations in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pageant is one of a handful of events at Salmon Festival that’s continued since the festival’s inception the year of Canada’s centennial. It serves as the festival’s official opening.

“The thought of not having the pageant take place is just the most foreign idea,” Doiron-Laviolette said. “It would feel like something is missing, almost like the festival would be incomplete. It has become a tradition for so many people from different walks of life … I just can’t imagine it not taking place.”

She said it takes weeks to properly plan the evening, and with pageant tentatively set for June 25, contestants will need to be in place within the next few days for it to continue.

Doiron-Laviolette said she hears the same things every year from all of the young women who shed their fears and shyness to participate.

“There are so many great things about taking part in the pageant, but just to name a few would be the new friendships that get made, the events that they go to together, the memories that last a lifetime,” she said. “I know many girls who made friends with contestants they didn’t even know until they entered the pageant and they are still friends now.”

On top of that, each contestant gets a prize basket and the winner is awarded a $2,000 bursary.

“The pageant truly is the opening of Salmon Festival that everyone seems to wait for,” Doiron-Laviolette said. “Even for those who don’t necessarily attend in person, they sit waiting by their computers and their cellphones to hear who is the new girl wearing the crown.”

Last year’s winner Alexa Drapeau-Chiasson, who went on to win the Miss New Brunswick pageant in Woodstock, said taking part in the pageant was the highlight of her year.

“It was amazing winning Miss Salmon Festival. I loved participating in all the festivities that the Salmon Festival committee had planned for us,” she said. “These pageants were such amazing experiences and I have met the best of friends … I will forever cherish these memories.”

Also part of the opening ceremonies during the pageant is the naming of the citizen of the year. Festival organizers took to social media this week asking for nominations or there might not be one named, which would also be the first time that’s happened outside of COVID.