Festival by the Marsh was founded in 2005 in Sackville New Brunswick as a multidisciplinary summer arts festival. Originally associated with Mount Allison University, since 2008 we have been officially incorporated as an independent non-profit. From 2005-2010 and again from 2021 going forward, our festivals are centred around fully mounted productions of plays by William Shakespeare – beginning with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
As a collaborate and inclusive festival, we are also proud to work within our community to present a wide variety of other artistic disciplines and activities for people of all ages and backgrounds – including March Music Fest, consisting of professional blues, jazz and folk concerts; KIDSFEST, a festival for children’s programming; and Writers Fest Day, with presentations by professional writers from across Canada. We’ve presented numerous workshops in all arts disciplines from theatre, photography, music, dance, and fine art. Throughout the Festival’s history, we’ve had the privilege of working with some of Canada’s finest professional performers. We’ve been host to concerts performed by David Myles, Black Umfulosi, and Mike Murley; workshops presented by artists Karen Stentaford and Janet Crawford; we’ve hosted presentations by authors Michael Crummy and Beth Powning; artists Bruno and Molly Boback and Tom Forestall; along with too many others to name!