Pure fun.

Country isn’t just a place. It’s experiences, tastes, sights, sounds. The roar of a tractor pull. The screams from a clackety rollercoaster. The sizzle of ribs longer than your arm. The joy of a fiddle at full-tilt. Our year-round, something-for-everyone events mix tradition with good times and plenty of sunshine.

 

Our communities stay strong by celebrating together, always to live music and heaping plates of homemade food. Traditionally, country events were a chance to reconnect with neighbours from farms far away, fundraise for local needs, and showcase the marvels coaxed from our lands.

We’ll get to our beloved fall fairs in a bit, but crowds also drive up for our many art and music festivals, like the live-competitive painting Art Battle on May 22, or Cuisine-Art (June 20 – 21), where art and food mix it up (both are at the Alton Mill Arts Centre). Every June, 35,000 people stroll the 25 free venues at the Orangeville Blues & Jazz Festival. Shelburne’s iconic Fiddlefest, early August, presents classic roast beef dinners set to the toe-tapping twang of first-class fiddlers. And if you’re a picker yourself, Shelburne’s Pickin’ In The Park (July 23 – 26) invites you to unfold a lawn chair and join a jamboree camp-out.

Looking for something even countrier? You can celebrate man’s love of getting things dirty, as 4X4’s and ATV’s race in the mud at Sweatpea’s Mudbog in Amaranth throughout the summer; celebrate the legendary John Deere legacy in tractor parades, vintage displays and country roasts, at the John Deere Weekend in Grand Valley in July; or celebrate all things slimy and beautiful at the Belfountain Conservation Area Salamander Festival (September). And for tradition, agricultural pride and 2000-calorie treats, you must attend a real Fall Fair at least once.

All year ‘round, from Christmas light shows and concerts to craft shows to farmers’ markets, we’re celebrating a way of life. And like all celebrations, the more, the countrier.