Fulford Street Dance

“Fulford Street Dance” reboot unites the community through dance and music

The Fulford Community Club is rebooting the "Fulford Street Dance" with the goal of bringing the community back together once again. Photo taken by Taylor McClure.

By Taylor McClure
Townships’ Daily News Bits
CIDI 99.1 FM

The Fulford Community Club is rebooting the “Fulford Street Dance” for the upcoming summer, with a few changes to the format, to bring a sense of community back to the village. 

The “Fulford Street Dance” holds historical significance in the community. The event was started in the 1960s by what was then known as the Fulford Recreation Club and it’s been described as a community favourite. Friends, family, and neighbours came together to dance along Davis Street to the sounds of whatever band or musician decided to take centre stage beside the road, all while enjoying some canteen food served out of a basement at 59 Davis. Stories of the “Fulford Street Dance” have been passed down through generations of some of the first families to settle in the village. 

The Fulford Community Club usually organizes events for the community throughout the year, but many of its regular activities were put on hold as a result of the pandemic and the difficulty it faced in finding volunteers. After a quiet couple of years, the club wanted to find a way to bring the community back together again and to give it something to look forward to 

“I fondly remember coming to the street dance with my sister, we were five, six years old. My father’s hay wagon would be brought down and the street dance would take place right on the street, of course there wasn’t much traffic back then,” recalled Cindy Badger, a member of the Fulford Community Club. “We mostly remember the music, but we also remember the hot dogs, the food, and just being out. (…) It was a family event and that’s what we’re trying to bring back to Fulford is a community event again, to reach out to all of the families, and get everybody together to have a good time.”

Crystal Badger, president of the Fulford Community Club, brought up the idea for a “Fulford Street Dance” reboot after hearing about how near and dear the event was for the local community and beyond. According to Crystal, a member of the club recently went to the border where the border patrol agent recognized the name of the village and asked if they still hosted the street dance, the event still leaves an impression 50 years on. 

“The reason being is that I heard in the past so many times from my grandparents, other members of the family, and friends about how it was such a great thing. There was lots of chats about it and how it was so much fun,” Crystal highlighted. “Because of Covid, it put our other events at a halt and we were having trouble finding helpers for certain events, a lot of our helpers had also diminished from passing away. We were trying to figure out different events that we could try to bring back the (sense) community.”

The “Fulford Street Dance” ran from 1960 to about 1967, the year the Fulford Hall was built. Cindy noted that back then, community was of upmost importance in Fulford. 

“It’s important today, but it was even more so back then. Everyone was there for their neighbours and everybody, of course, liked to have a good time. Especially in the summer after a hard winter, it was good to enjoy music, the camaraderie, and dancing of course,” she said.

While the club recognizes that things aren’t like they used to be and that access to the street is limited, it decided to give the “Fulford Street Dance” a shot by changing things up a little bit. 

“I threw it at the group and I said ‘look, maybe we can try to bring the street dance back, maybe we just do it a little different.’ We don’t have access so much to the street in a sense because there is a lot more residents, it’s a lot different. So we decided to do it here at the hall this year,” said Crystal. “We’re going to have a tent of course for the weather so that it permits us to still do it. We’re going to try to do the hay wagon idea with the band on it.”

The club booked well known local band Leadville Union to get people’s feet moving. 

“We’re just really hoping for a really, really, good turn out and maybe we can bring back memories that other people back in the day had, but more modern,” mentioned Crystal. 

The “Fulford Street Dance” is taking place on July 8 from 7:30  p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at 62 Chemin Davis, Foster. A 10$ donation is suggested with all funds going back to the Fulford Community Club for future events, including the possibility of another street dance. 

“Should this be something that takes off, perhaps it could go on for a couple of years, an annual activity. I guess our whole determination is just to see how this one turns out and how it all folds together,” noted Crystal. 

Listen to the full interview with Crystal and Cyndi below to hear more about the "Fulford Street Dance."