Three local events among ‘top 100’ festivals, fairs in Ontario

WELLINGTON COUNTY – Three local festivals and fairs made it onto Festivals and Events Ontario’s “Top 100” list, including the Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games and first-timers Meadows Music Festival and the Erin Fall Fair.

The list was assembled by judges from 140 entries to the festival association based on events from September 2024 to the end of December 2025.

Now in its fourth year, Meadows Fest is expanding on the sportsplex grounds on Belsyde Avenue to accommodate more attendees, vendors and performers, festival owner and director Collin McKinnon told the Advertiser.

“The first couple years we were really just focused on the music and treating it like a big outdoor concert,” McKinnon said.

“The experience level for this event is now getting to a point where we can be as proud of what’s happening off the stage as what’s happening on it.”

Landing on a list next to festival heavyweights like the Fergus Scottish Festival, McKinnon said, is “really special.”

“We’re friends with so many of the events on that list; that feels good to be at the table with them now.”

When the festival launched in 2023 McKinnon just wanted to sell enough tickets and not lose too much money.

In recent years tickets are selling out well ahead of festival dates. Tickets for this year’s festival, set for May 29 and 30 and featuring headliners Arkells and Dallas Smith, are already 65 per cent sold according to McKinnon.

“It’s become much bigger than we ever really imagined,” McKinnon said, noting he expects upwards of 13,000 people to attend the two-day event.

Local artists to perform on Meadows’ secondary stage are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

The Erin Fall Fair, which celebrated 175 years in 2025, is also making a first appearance on the list.

Always on the Thanksgiving long weekend, the fair features agricultural displays, hands-on experiences with farm animals, hundreds of home craft exhibitors, vendors, sporting events, live music, demolition derbies and a midway.

Organized and hosted by the Erin Agricultural Society, the fair serves the society’s mandate to promote rural life, agricultural awareness and education, officials say.

“We’re proud of what we do and what we can accomplish,” fair manager Joanne Gregson told the Advertiser.

“It takes a lot to be able to get on the top list.”

According to the society, 33,500 people attended the event at the Main Street fairgrounds last year.

Gregson said the society is currently planning entertainment and events for the fair’s Festival Gardens, where the live entertainment happens.

“Hopefully within the next couple months we’ll have all those things put in place,” she said.

This year’s fall fair takes place Oct. 9 to 12.

The Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games is making its seventh appearance on the top 100 list since 2017.

“This award validates every bit of planning and delivery and motivates us to keep doing what we do best,” festival director Elizabeth Bender told the Advertiser.

The 80th fair last year drew nearly 28,000 people, breaking a previous post-COVID record of 26,000.

The three-day festival on the Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex grounds features heavy events, pipe band competitions, highland dancing, Scottish clans, vendors, agriculture and plenty of tartans.

Although the festival makes a regular appearance on the top 100 list, Bender said the recognition hasn’t lost its value on the heels of the festival’s 80th anniversary.

Tickets and campsites for the Aug. 7 to 9 festival went on sale earlier this week.

Registration for clans, vendors and the festival’s “heavy event school” are also live.

A full entertainment lineup wasn’t available by press time, but the festival has revealed Ally Crowley-Duncan, also known as Ally the Piper, will be bringing her blend of rock and bagpipes to the festival stage this summer.