There’s a little something for everyone in this week’s road trip roundup! Art lovers can head to Alexandria for the kickoff to a six-week art exhibition along Main Street. Soccer fans can cheer on Atlético Ottawa. Movie buffs can catch the latest flicks, online or in person, at the Toronto International Film Festival. You can even see carved wooden turkeys in Lyndhurst or visit a cider maker in Arnprior! Wherever the road takes you, enjoy.
Get artsy in Alexandria
From September 11 to October 24, more than 20 businesses and other venues along Main Street in Alexandria will be displaying 104 works by 23 artists as part of the Windows on the World (WOW) event. The organizers, the Collectif d’artistes de Glengarry Artists’ Collective, invite visitors to vote for their favourite pieces; the winner will be announced on October 24.
The six-week exhibit kicks off with WOWfest in Mill Square on Saturday, September 11, with art workshops, a vendor fair, live music and more. The festival runs from 10am to 4pm, but not everything is happening throughout those six hours; check the website above for times for each activity.
Buy a book for a good cause
On Wednesday, September 8, you can mark International Literacy Day in two ways with People, Words & Change (PWC), a free one-on-one literacy and essential skills program for adults in Ottawa. First, head to Perfect Books on Elgin Street, which will donate 10% of its sales that day to PWC. (If you’re wondering what book to buy, the shop still has a few copies of Ottawa Road Trips: Your 100km Getaway Guide, hint, hint.)
Next, between September 8 to 10, check out the the OTTAWA sign in the ByWard Market. It will be illuminated with PWC’s colours for three days. Take a sign selfie and send it to PWC!
Enjoy musical nostalgia in Gananoque
The Thousand Islands Playhouse in Gananoque is presenting Back in ’59, a musical about four friends attending a high school reunion and reminiscing about the music of their youth. The show is packed with more than 70 classic songs from the ’50s and ’60s, including “It’s My Party,” “Let’s Twist Again” and “Leader of the Pack.” It opens on September 9 and runs until October 2 at the Firehall Theatre.
Frolic at a fall fair
We’re getting into prime fair season, and while some have been cancelled this year, others are going ahead—with health and safety modifications, of course. Whether you’re looking for a midway, a concert, game booths, a demolition derby or a good old-fashioned apple pie competition, check out the following to see which ones are offering which amusements in 2021:
- Renfrew Fair (September 9 to 12)
- Spencerville Fair (September 9 to 12)
- Picton Fair (September 11; drive-through festival this year)
Also, the Lyndhurst Turkey Fair has been cancelled for 2021, but you can drive by the entries in the fair’s turkey sculpture competition between September 12 and 18. (A friend pointed out that I need to clarify that these are wooden turkey sculptures and not actual turkeys with creative haircuts—duly noted.) The turkey fair website has details on the competition.
And if you’re looking for information on fairs later in the season, check out my list of 20+ fabulous fairs near Ottawa.
Tour local craft breweries, wineries and cideries
Local beer-tour company Brew Donkey restarted its tours last week, and it looks like there’s a lot of pent-up demand! When I checked the website just now, two of this weekend’s tours were already sold out. So I’d hustle and plan in advance if you want to join one of these fun trips, which involve a bunch of suds lovers hopping aboard a school bus and visiting beer makers throughout our region to learn, taste and buy. There’s casual food, too, such as pretzels and sandwiches.
If wine and cider are more your style, La Vida Local is running its West Carleton Wine and Cider Tour on Saturday, September 11. Stops include KIN Vineyards in Carp, Farmgate Cider in Arnprior and Needham’s Market Garden in Pakenham. La Vida Local’s tours are a blast (check out my post about a trip I took with them a few years ago, in the Before Times).
Mark the 75th anniversary of the Second World War at Beechwood
This year, the popular annual historical walking tour at Ottawa’s Beechwood Cemetery (Sunday, September 12) will be a little different. For one thing, it will be stationary, performed by actors from the Ottawa School of Theatre on an outdoor stage in the Veterans’ Section of the cemetery. Also, you’ll need to register online in advance for distancing purposes.
This year’s event, Coming Home, marks the 75th anniversary of the Second World War by telling the stories of four Canadians who participated in the conflict. The English performance starts at 2pm and the French one at 3:30pm. A crooner will be entertaining the audience with 1940s standards for half an hour before each show. Bring your own chairs.
Catch the latest movies
Always wanted to attend the Toronto International Film Festival but couldn’t make it to T.O.? Then this might just be your year, as TIFF (September 9 to 18) is presenting a mix of in-person and online movie screenings. Movies playing in-person or online include Michael McGowan’s adaptation of Miriam Toews novel, All My Puny Sorrows; Denis Villeneuve’s long-awaited version of the Frank Herbert classic, Dune; and The Truffle Hunters, a documentary filmed in northern Italy. For the streaming movies, click the Digital Screenings tab on the festival’s home page.
Get outdoors on a farm
The Log Farm in Ottawa’s west end is launching its fall program of activities on September 12. Aimed at families with children under 10, the fun includes a corn maze, wagon rides, hay play structures, scarecrows, a kids’ barn, and lots of farm animals to feed and pet. Timed tickets are required for admission, and you’ll all need masks if you want to ride in the wagon.
A bit further afield (see what I did there?) in Kingston and Frontenac County, Open Farms 2021 (September 10 to 17) offers a mix of real-world and virtual programming highlighting the key role local farms and farmers play in our food chain. The in-person activities are happening on September 11 and 12 and include farmers’ markets, special menus at restaurants in Kingston and on Wolfe Island, farm visits in Harrowsmith, Arden and Inverary, a drive-in screening of Babe in Verona, and lots of other agricultural fun.
See a play riffing on Shakespearean ideas of love
As I mentioned in last week’s roundup post, A Company of Fools is presenting Love From Afar—a production drawing on multiple Shakespearean plays to discuss the idea of love—at various locations across the region throughout September. This week, the troupe will stage the play behind J.T. Bradley’s store in Navan on September 9 and in Champlain Park in Ottawa’s inner west end on September 11.
Watch soccer or get fit at TD Place
On Wednesday, September 8, Ottawa’s new soccer team, Atlético Ottawa, takes on Hamilton’s Forge FC, starting at 7pm. Later in the week, Zumba fans can grab their shoes and head to TD Place on Sunday, September 12, at 2pm for Zumba on the Field, an outdoor dance class fundraiser for the OSEG Foundation. Tickets are $20 and you need to buy them in advance.
Plan ahead for spooky thrills
Yeah, yeah, I know that September has barely started. But I also know that tickets to just about any public event are hot commodities these days, since many indoor events are still not feasible and outdoor events have capacity limits. So, in the interest of reminding you to shop early, I point you to two ghostly/Halloween-themed events.
Tickets to Stittsville Haunted Heritage Tours (September 24 to November 13) are on sale now, and tickets for Pumpkinferno at Upper Canada Village (September 24 to October 31) go on sale at 1pm on Tuesday, September 7. (I just checked the Pumpkinferno site at 1:25pm on Tuesday and it’s taking a long time to load, so I suspect demand is as high as I suspected.)
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