21 road trips for this week: Bazaar in St. Bernardin, James Keelaghan in Renfrew and soup in Kemptville

If you want to get out and celebrate winter this weekend, you can head to a festival of crazy sports in Montreal or a winter carnival in Beckwith. And if you’d rather forget the snow and dream of spring, you can buy seeds and talk gardening at events across Eastern Ontario. You can also check out a beer festival and a golf show in Ottawa, a makers’ market in Brockville, or a unique biathlon in upstate New York. Have fun!

Try crazy winter sports in Montreal

Shake off the winter blues with a weekend of outdoor fun at the Barbegazi festival at Montreal’s Parc Olympique (March 7 and 8). Offering everything from snowskating and fir throwing to arm wrestling and archery, it looks like a community winter carnival on steroids. Fuel up between activities with goodies from onsite food trucks. (Note that the video above is from 2019, so ignore the dates at the end!)

See a play in Kingston or Ottawa

College student Evie Malone is a top-ranked video gamer who has a side hustle writing letters for the lovelorn. She’s happy with her virtual relationship with her online boyfriend. Then her carefully organized life falls apart when she falls for a guy in the real world. That’s the premise of In Love and Warcraft, Domino Theatre’s latest production. It’s running in Kingston from March 5 to 21.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa, Orpheus Musical Theatre is staging that musical love letter to late-1980s rock and metal, Rock of Ages, at the Meridian Theatres at Centrepointe from March 6 to 15. Grab your Lyrca, tease your big hair and rock on to hits from Foreigner, Whitesnake, Twisted Sister and more.

Savour some soup in Kemptville

Photo by Jade Aucamp on Unsplash.

Does winter have you craving a warming bowl of soup? Then head to Kemptville on Saturday, March 7, for TLC Soupfest, a friendly competition between local chefs. It runs from 11am to 2pm at the North Grenville Municipal Centre. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids.

Check out a new bazaar and arts event in St. Bernardin

Le Big Buzzart is a new literary and entertainment event in St. Bernardin, a community about an hour east of Ottawa (between Plantagenet and Vankleek Hill). You can browse for new, used and vintage items—including books, CDs, vinyl records, art and games—meet local authors, and take part in comic book and self-publishing workshops. It’s happening on Saturday, March 7, from 9am to 4pm, at the Caledonia Community Centre, and admission is free.

Catch a concert in Renfrew, Morrisburg, Cornwall or Pembroke

Batstone’s Northern Ramble in Renfrew has booked the popular folk musician James Keelaghan—dubbed “Canada’s finest songwriter” by influential American music critic Dave Marsh—for a Friday night show this week (March 6). [Note: Edited to correct date error in original—my apologies!]

At the Upper Canada Playhouse in Morrisburg, the Raine Hamilton Trio takes to the stage on Saturday, March 7, as part of the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage series. Hamilton took home the Emerging Artist of the Year Award at the Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2018, and the ensemble blends elements of chamber music, folk and storytelling, in English and French.

This Saturday, you can choose from one of two tribute concerts to singers named Neil. If you have a heart of gold, you might be interested in After the Gold Rush, a tribute to the music of Neil Young, at the Port Theatre in Cornwall. That same night, Solitary Man is a Neil Diamond tribute concert at the Festival Hall Centre for the Performing Arts in Pembroke.

Enjoy a winter carnival in Beckwith

At the March Meltdown winter carnival in Beckwith Park, near Carleton Place on Saturday, March 7, you can enjoy a pancake breakfast, free public skating, winter games, wagon rides and a chili cook-off.

Enjoy a documentary festival in Belleville

MARGARET ATWOOD A Word is a Word is a Word is Power Feature Trailer from White Pine Pictures on Vimeo.

This weekend, the Belleville Downtown DocFest (March 6 to 8) is screening 48 documentaries in five venues. It’s a non-competitive, non-juried event focusing on human rights, social/environmental justice, and arts and culture. Documentaries on the schedule include films about artist Mary Pratt, musician Robbie Robertson and author Margaret Atwood; A Place to Call Home, about new Canadians in the Bay of Quinte area; and nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, about the family of Colten Boushie, a young Cree man who was shot and killed on a Saskatchewan farm in 2016.

Browse for hand-made items in Brockville

The Brockville Makers’ Market is coming back to the Court House Lodge on Sunday, March 8. Jewellers, quilters, bakers and other creative folks will have goodies for sale.

Dream about golf season in Ottawa

Flickr/Creative Commons photo by Susanne Nilsson.

If you can’t wait to hit the fairways and start yelling Fore!, head to the Ottawa-Gatineau Golf Expo at the EY Centre (March 6 and 7) to browse for golf gear of all sorts, learn about local courses or plan a golf vacation.

Get a jump on St. Patrick’s Day in Ottawa

Why wait until next weekend to start celebrating all things Irish? Ottawa is getting a jump on the festivities by launching the Ottawa Irish Festival (March 5 to 17) with a kick-off party at Ottawa City Hall on Thursday, March 5, and a Children’s Irish Party at St. Patrick’s Basilica on Sunday, March 8. The festival kicks into high gear next week with the traditional parade (Saturday, March 14) and lots of other fun.

Browse for books in Montreal

Photo by João Silas on Unsplash.

The Westmount Book Fair in Westmount—a separate municipality in the heart of Montreal—proudly proclaims itself Canada’s Smallest Book Fair. It features a group of booksellers selling a wide selection of books, pamphlets, maps, prints and ephemera. The fair will be held on Saturday, March 7, from 10am to 5pm, at the Centre Greene.

Raise a glass in Ottawa

Winter Brewfest gives you the chance to sample a selection of more than 100 craft beers at Lansdowne Park (March 6 and 7). Along with trying beers galore, you can nibble on snacks and enjoy beats from a changing roster of DJs.

Get seeds and gardening ideas in Ottawa, Brockville, Pembroke and Perth

Photo by Sergey Shmidt on Unsplash.

Seedy Saturdays and Seedy Sundays, where gardeners can swap seeds and ideas, continue this weekend with events at the Ron Kolbus Centre in Britannia Park in Ottawa (March 7), the Brockville Memorial Civic Centre (March 7), the Rankin Culture and Recreation Centre in Pembroke (March 8) and the Civitan Club in Perth (March 8).

Go snowshoeing and target shooting in Lisbon, New York

OK, in six years of running this website, this is a first one on me: a race that combines snowshoeing, muskets and axes. The St. Lawrence Valley Primitive Snowshoe Biathlon is happening in Lisbon, New York (about a half-hour drive from Prescott, Ontario) on March 7 and 8. At five stops along the biathlon route, participants have to fire a musket or a muzzle-loading rifle at a target and throw an axe; each time you hit a target, the scorekeepers take five minutes off your race time.

Want more tips on road trips from Ottawa—including info on hotel discounts, contests, festivals and other cool news? Subscribe to my free weekly e-newsletter! I will never spam you—promise.

Are you promoting an upcoming event you’d like to see in a future weekly road trip roundup? Please email me the details at least two weeks in advance of the event, and I’ll add them to my files. If you have a horizontal photo or two I could use, even better. Thanks!

Save