ELORA – For 15 years, Riverfest Elora has been a summertime staple for locals and tourists from across the globe.
Big-time headliners and first-time performers have hit the stages at the popular August festival in Bissell Park. But this year was the festival’s last.
Organizers Jay Ashdown, Shawn Watters and Jon Ralston have called it quits after shouldering years of financial strain.
“With full hearts and profound gratitude, we share news that is incredibly difficult to put into words,” began a Nov. 18 press release from festival officials.
Modest profits on the occasional good year were unable to offset major losses suffered in others. Rising operational costs that outpaced revenue have left Ashdown, Watters and Ralston in the red to the tune of at least $1.2 million.
“Despite our best efforts, and even after having one of our most operationally-successful seasons in 2025, the gap between what it costs to deliver a world-class festival experience and what is financially viable has grown unbridgeably wide,” the Nov. 18 release stated.
Reached by phone on Tuesday, Ralston said he’s proud the festival survived for 15 years. He helped start the festival – then a backyard fundraiser for the Elora Centre for the Arts – in 2009 with late Elora artist Marilyn Koop.
After Koop’s death in 2012, Ralston and Watters took over.
“We started with nothing and tried to grow it as much as we could,” Ralston said.
“This thing grew because of Elora,” he added.
Howie Southwood, Koop’s husband, told Ralston that Koop would be proud of what the festival became.
Over the years, festival headliners have included Blue Rodeo, City and Colour, Metric, Arkells, The Reklaws, Feist, Bruce Cockburn and The Sheepdogs.
City and Colour, also known as Canadian singer-songwriter Dallas Green, capped off the weekend at Riverfest Elora in 2025. Advertiser file photo
Ralston said the festival was in the black going into the pandemic, but never recovered on the other side.
“We’ve accumulated $1.2 million in debt since COVID,” he said.
Operational costs are up 65 per cent, well outpacing revenue from sponsorships and ticket and alcohol sales, according to Ralston.
The trio decided to pull the plug after $1.2 million in revenue this year fell short of the festival’s $1.6-million budget.
He said even in a best-case scenario the festival might break even next year.
“And that was living on hopes and dreams,” he said.
Ralston warned that without government funding, other festivals will meet a similar fate.
He thanked the community, festival-goers and volunteers alike: “The people that have come every single year, look forward to it and bookmark that date and that weekend every year, and all the people that have worked their ass off and made this their own over the years.”
Elora arts centre executive director Lianne Carter told the Advertiser Riverfest helped shape Elora’s creative identity and fostered unforgettable experiences.
“We’ve seen firsthand how hard their team has worked – adapting, innovating and doing everything they possibly could to reach a different outcome,” she said.
Next year would have marked a decade-long streak of attending Riverfest for Elora resident Sarah Gammie. Each year, she staked her spot with a neighbourhood group ranging between 18 to 30 people.
“It’s less about the bands, though I do love the bands; it’s more about the community,” Gammie said.
The group has already been talking about what to do to replace the hole left by the festival’s demise.
“I had tears in my eyes,” Gammie said of her reaction upon hearing the news.
“It’s something we’ve done for so long … we didn’t miss it for anything.”
Guelph resident Crystal Quartz has worked backstage at the festival and hosted performers at after-parties and on the Koop Stage in 2024.
She called Riverfest “a whole festival full of love, laughter and joy.
“I had to keep going every year so I could get that little bit of joy at the end of summer,” she said.
Quartz lauded Riverfest’s “incredible sense of community,” noting that’s what makes the news most heartbreaking.
Danielle McTaggert of Vancouver band Dear Rouge got up close and personal during a main stage set at Riverfest this summer. Advertiser file photo
Guelph resident Willow Bending has been volunteering with the festival since 2017 and said Riverfest provided her “a solid weekend outside the norms of life.”
Bending added there was a “jam-packed list of great artists” every year and she always met new people from different walks of life, whom she connected with over a strong love of music.
For Guelph resident Julie McCann, the festival was a “fundamental thing for the family.” She and her two sons, Devin and Nolan Marton, have volunteered for the past six years as a set-up and tear-down crew.
“We built the festival,” she said.
McCann said she was shocked to learn the festival was no more and wonders what its absence will mean for the community.
“I was really quite saddened by it,” she said.
Toronto resident Mike Strizic played this year’s Riverfest with Drop Dead Poppies, bringing his two-year-old son along for his first music festival.
“Having the opportunity to experience the day through his eyes was one of the greatest moments of my life,” Strizic told the Advertiser.
“Riverfest felt like an ode to what a festival could be when community and compassion were placed front and centre.”
Cesar Sauveur Arrambide Reyes was visiting from Mexico when he saw headliner Metric in 2023.
“When Metric appeared on stage, I was in shock,” he recalled.
Arrambide Reyes said he discovered new bands he otherwise would not have heard.
“Riverfest is, in fact, a festival with a before and an after,” he said.
Riverfest Elora 2023 ended with a performance from Feist. Advertiser file photo
Boo Radley Project lead singer Emmett Watters said the local band evolved with the festival as it grew.
The band has played Riverfest for the past eight years, with its live karaoke experience becoming part of the festival’s fabric. Anyone could jump on the Koop stage – aptly named after the festival’s founder – and pick a song to sing along to, backed by Boo Radley.
“It was great having people come up and display their talents and be given the opportunity to do their thing on stage … not a lot of festivals offer that kind of performance opportunity for the folks in the crowd,” Watters said.
Watters, the son of Centre Wellington Mayor and festival co-founder Shawn Watters, said he “heard rumblings” about the festival’s struggles, but first learned of its impending closure last week.
“It’s a total bummer, it’s a total loss for the community,” Watters said.
“The sense of community and bringing people together has always been something that the festival has done a good job of.”
Adrian Jones has watched young talent from his rock band camps grow up through “Rivercital” performances that annually kick off the weekend festival.
“Riverfest’s legacy of developing emerging regional acts is undeniable and will never be forgotten,” Jones said.
“Many of my favourite memories of living in Elora are directly related to Riverfest.”
Since 2023 Riverfest Elora partnered with Team Addy to present A Concert with Addytude.
Team Addy is a cancer-research fundraising organization launched in honour of Addison Hill, an Elora teen who died of cancer in 2022.
Addy’s mom, Jessica Hill, told the Advertiser Riverfest Elora’s closure will not impact the Addytude concert.
“All Riverfest personnel who have supported us will continue to do so. We are deeply grateful for their commitment and their hearts,” Hill said.
“This community continues to lift us up and keep us standing.”
*With reporting from Robin George, Jordan Snobelen and Joanne Shuttleworth.
