Kingston’s Lake Ontario Park will be the home of the 2nd annual Perreault Fest next Saturday afternoon.
The concert was launched by friends of Dave Perreault, a little under a year after he was killed in an accident in 2024 at the age of 41.
Friends of Perreault kicked off the festival last year in an effort to hold a celebration of life for him, and since Perreault was a passionate musician himself, they knew a concert would be a great way to honour their friend.
Taylor Donaldson, one of the festival organizers and a friend of Perreault’s, said as such a community-oriented person, the event held in 2025 would have been something Dave loved to to attend and be a part of.
He said the only thing that stopped last year’s event from feeling complete was not being able to see their friend there.
“One of the things we were sort of like saying all to each other last year  was we just kept looking around going, where’s Dave?” Donaldson said.
“This is exactly the kind of thing that he would always be at, he loved going to shows… it was one of those things where I think this is just the exact kind of event that he would have loved to be at, and in a way, we want to feel like he’s still with us, and we kind of do feel that way.”
Donaldson said last year’s festival – also held in Lake Ontario Park – drew about 100 attendees, and said organizers and friends of Dave had such a good time at the event, they wanted to look at how to make more of the concert this year.
That’s why this year, they’ve raised funds in order to offer two scholarships to students at Notre Dame Regiopolis Catholic School in Kingston.
Before his death, Perreault was an aspiring teacher in Kingston, looking to share and teach his passion for both music and carpentry to young people in the city.
In the spirit of that, funds will go towards one scholarship to a student at Regi for music, and one to a student for shop tech.
Donaldson says the event started as a way for those close to him to make sense of a tragic loss, but has now grown into a way to support young people, and help carry on Perreault’s ambitions of doing just that.
“At first it was sort of our way of making sense of what had happened, because it was just such a terrible accident, but then when we had so much fun bringing everybody together,” Donaldson said.
“That [working towards teaching shop tech] was what he was doing, and he really was enjoying his new work as a student teacher, and so the idea with the scholarship is we’re trying to carry on his legacy, because he never got to become a teacher.”
The Saturday afternoon concert will be free to attend for anyone who wants to, with funds being raised to support this year’s scholarship awards, and will feature local artists Lukas Oak, Dads With Jobs, and Bruce Compeau & His Pals.
The festival will also be used as the opportunity to present the scholarships to the students selected.
Perreault Fest runs next Saturday June 27 from 12:30-3:30 in Lake Ontario Park, and is free for anyone to attend.
