37 road trips from Ottawa this weekend: Art in Merrickville, lambs in Carleton Place, Glowfair and Father’s Day fun!

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If last weekend’s sunny skies have you thinking about a road trip, you’re in luck: options this weekend include a block party in Orleans, an art-themed fundraiser in Cornwall, an outdoorsy expo in Renfrew, a jazz concert in Cantley, a standup paddleboard festival in Lake Placid and the Ottawa Fringe Festival. Enjoy!

Learn about lambs in Carleton Place

The Lambs Down Park Festival (yes, I spelled that right) is a celebration of all things sheep related. It is taking place at the Canadian Co-operative Wool Growers facility in Carleton Place on Saturday, June 15. Come see sheep shearers at work! You can also take a wagon ride, browse for crafts, enjoy live music by Huntley Slim and the Suburban Cowboys, and more.

Go to an art fundraiser in Cornwall

Conquer the Canvas is a new event at the Benson Centre in Cornwall on Saturday, June 15, organized to raise money for the new Cornwall Arts and Culture Centre. It’s a clever idea I don’t think I’ve seen before: Three rounds of competitors, including local high school students, artists from the surrounding areas and local VIPs, will compete to create the best artworks, as voted on by audience members (who will be strolling among the artists and cheering them on). Music, a silent auction, food and beverages will add to the festive atmosphere—and cash prizes and a trophy will be on the line.

Celebrate the Shenkman Arts Centre’s birthday in Orleans

The Shenkman Arts Centre is turning 10 and the whole city is invited to celebrate at an outdoor block party on Friday, June 14, from 4pm to 10pm. The event will feature everything from a Juno-nominated DJ spinning cool tunes to aerial acrobats, fire dancers, stilt walkers, an African dance workshop, a big birthday cake, printmaking, food trucks and too many other things to mention. Admission is free but donations to the Orléans-Cumberland Community Resource Centre Food Bank are encouraged.

Learn about forest life in Renfrew

Do you love all things woodsy? Then you’re the target market for the Forest Life Expo in Renfrew (June 14 to 16), which expects to host some 250 exhibitors. Come learn about woodworking, off-grid living, rural businesses, woodlot management, sawmilling, fishing, mountain biking and other outdoorsy topics. You can also tuck into a pancake breakfast or food truck fare, enjoy live music, go for a helicopter ride, or take a forest tour.

Revel in francophone music in Ottawa or Montreal

Les Francos de Montréal (June 14 to 22) is one of the largest festivals of francophone music in the world. With hundreds of indoor and outdoor concerts scattered across downtown Montreal, it’s like a huge buffet of French music—you’re almost certain to find something to your taste. Genres run the gamut from rap and country to folk and world music.

Closer to home, the Festival Franco-Ontarien in Ottawa’s Major’s Hill Park (June 13 to 15) features a similarly eclectic program of acts from across Canada and overseas. The festival’s family day is Saturday, June 15.

Watch a scuba diver in action in Brockville

Well, this is cool: On Saturday, June 15, the Aquatarium in Brockville will be live streaming an unusual event from 11am to 11:30am. Save Ontario Shipwrecks 1000 Islands will be adding a new sculpture to the Brockville Underwater Sculpture Park in the St. Lawrence River, and visitors might be able to ask questions of the diver while he’s at work. The screening is included with museum admission.

Take your kids to Boldt Castle

Boldt Castle is holding a Family Discovery Day on Saturday, June 15, where kids can meet birds of prey, get their faces painted, learn about science, plant flowers and enjoy all sorts of other educational fun. You can catch a ride to the historic mansion on Heart Island with one of the cruise lines along the Ontario and New York shores of the St. Lawrence River. If you’re coming from Canada, don’t forget your passport, as the castle is on the U.S. side of the river.

Delve into history with the Glengarry Pioneer Museum

It will be a busy weekend in and around Dunvegan. The Glengarry Pioneer Museum is hosting its annual Blacksmith Festival (June 15 and 16), to introduce families to the old-timey art of making horseshoes and other metal items. The museum is also running a Historical Driving Tour on Saturday, June 15, where drivers (and their passengers) can learn about a wide swath of Eastern Ontario from Dalkeith to Hawkesbury. At stops along the way, guest speakers will talk about the region’s history. And, there’s lunch! Pre-registration is required for the driving tour.

Head to Petawawa for Civic Centre Days

There’s tons of fun happening in Petawawa this weekend during Civic Centre Days (June 13 to 16). Enjoy barbecue from Brickyard BBQ Catering, a midway, a trivia night, a lobster fest, a vendor market featuring roughly 100 crafters and artisans, a beard and moustache contest, a dance, an antique care show and lots more.

Go to an art exhibition opening in Chelsea

Summer Breeze is this year’s edition of La Fab Arts Centre’s annual show of artworks created by its members. You can meet the artists at a vernissage on Thursday, June 13, from 4pm to 8pm, and the show runs until July 14.

Enjoy roots music in Iroquois or Montreal

Catch down-home country and bluegrass acts at this weekend’s Galop Canal Bluegrass Festival in Iroquois (June 13 to 15). Headliners include Dreamcatcher (from Tennessee) and the Bluegrass Unit (from Nova Scotia). In all, 11 acts will take to the stage. The fun unrolls on the banks of the Iroquois Locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

In Montreal, the Folk Fest sur le Canal (June 13 to 16) features more than two dozen acts, including Ashley MacIsaac, the Good Lovelies and Frisco Lee. The festival takes place on the Centennial Esplanade beside the Lachine Canal.

Learn about stand-up paddleboards in Lake Placid

You can cheer on racers, try out stand-up paddleboards of all sorts (including inflatable ones), get paddleboarding tips and take a guided SUP tour at the Adirondack SUP Festival in Lake Placid, New York (June 14 to 16).

See a concert in Cantley, Morrisburg, Renfrew or Gananoque

Jazz vocalist Kellylee Evans is performing a night of jazz standards—with Mark Ferguson on piano and John Geggie on bass—on Friday, June 14, at La Grange de la Gatineau in Cantley. Dinner-and-show packages are sold out, but show-only tickets are still available.

If you can’t see Dreamcatcher at the Galop Canal Bluegrass Festival this weekend, you can see them at StoneCrop Acres Vineyard in Morrisburg on Wednesday, June 12. See Harmony Concerts for tickets.

Also this weekend: Canadian singer-songwriter North Easton is on stage at Batstone’s Northern Ramble in Renfrew on Saturday; Jonathan McLurg of popular Eastern Ontario folk group Turpin’s Trail is giving two solo shows at the Royal Theatre in Gananoque on June 14 and 15; Sam Amidon is at the Blacksheep Inn in Wakefield on Friday, and the same venue hosts Lynne Hanson and Scott Nolan on Saturday; and at the Cove Country Inn in Westport, Brock Zeman is playing on Friday, and Logan Brown and Taylor Angus are playing on Saturday.

Sample Canadian wines in Picton

Uncork Canada packs a lot into just three hours! Visitors will have the chance to try 12 samples of more than 700 wines from across Canada, many not available in the LCBO, and to vote for their favourites in this annual competition. It’s happening at the Prince Edward County Community Centre in Picton on Saturday, June 15, from 3pm to 6pm, and it’s a fundraiser for the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital Foundation and the Rotary Club of Picton.

Shop for art in Merrickville, Newburgh, Perth and Syracuse

You can admire blooming flowers and shop for art, while listening to live music, at Art, Jazz and the Garden at Rideau Woodland Ramble (near Merrickville) on Saturday, June 15. Enjoy music by Red Jazz and Nicolas Stackhouse while perusing works by members of the Merrickville Artists Guild.

Art Among the Ruins is a day-long art show and sale on Saturday, June 15, on the grounds of the ruined 19th-century Thomson Paper Mill in Newburgh (just northeast of Napanee). More than 60 artists from across Eastern Ontario—including weavers, painters, potters and more—will be participating at the riverfront site. You can enjoy live music and fuel up for shopping with a barbecue lunch.

Looking for some artwork for your garden—maybe an eye-catching metal sculpture or a ceramic planter? Some two dozen artists will be selling their works at Art in the Garden at Kiwi Gardens in Perth on June 15 and 16.

In Syracuse, the Westcott Art Trail (June 15 and 16) showcases 40 artisans in several locations in the city’s Westcott neighbourhood.

Take Dad to a historic site for Father’s Day

Pinhey’s Point Historic Site in Dunrobin is offering a Father’s Day Challenge on Sunday, June 16. Visitors can compete to finish a series of history-themed challenges, animated by a theatre troupe called Live History, before the clock runs out. That same day at the Nepean Museum, families can tackle three building projects (a modern structure, a log home and a pipeline) in an event called Father’s Day Builders.

Hit the quilt circuit in Ottawa or Richmond

The huge Quilt Canada 2019 show, with hundreds of vendors selling just about anything a quilter might need, comes to the EY Centre in Ottawa this week (June 12 to 15). Also this weekend, the Country Quilter shop in Richmond is hosting Quilts in the Garden on Saturday, June 15. More than 100 handmade items will be on display in the garden during the free event, and you can shop for quilts and used books.

Catch a play in Ottawa, Morrisburg, Smiths Falls, Perth or Gananoque

You never know what you’re going to see at the Ottawa Fringe Festival (June 13 to 23), but it’s almost always guaranteed to be unusual. This year’s lineup of plays and other live performance pieces includes everything from Destiny, USA (about a Canadian who moves to Syracuse) to the memorably titled one-man show God Is a Scottish Drag Queen.

In Morrisburg, the Upper Canada Playhouse is staging Where You Are, a new comedy by Kristen Da Silva. In it, retired sisters Glenda and Suzanne prepare for Suzanne’s daughter Beth to visit them on Manitoulin Island—but everyone is keeping some life-changing secrets. The play runs until Sunday, June 30.

In Smiths Falls, you can see a production of The Dixie Swim Club—a touching comedy about five southern women who met years ago on their college swim team and who have been getting together for annual reunions ever since. It’s on at the Station Theatre from June 14 to 16 and June 20 to 23.

In Perth, Barn Door Productions is staging Box and Cox, Complete—two 19th-century farces featuring the same characters—on select dates from June 14 to 23.

This is your last weekend to see BOOM X, a musical about the lives and times of Generation X, at the 1000 Islands Playhouse in Gananoque (until Saturday, June 15).

Relive life on the World War II homefront in Ottawa

Does the recent D-Day anniversary have you thinking of the Second World War? Laurier House National Historic Site, the one-time home of prime ministers Wilfrid Laurier and Mackenzie King, is hosting a Homefront Kitchen Party on Saturday, June 15, from 10am to 3pm—and it is free with admission. Come learn some swing dance steps and play some 1940s-style games. Check out the kitchen for a glimpse into what home cooking was like for families during the war (costumed staff will be on hand to answer your questions).

Rev up your engines in Renfrew County

What I know about ATVs would fit on the head of a very small pin. But if off-road vehicles get your motor running, then the three-day B101A or Bust event in Renfrew County (June 14 to 16) looks like a packed weekend that might be right up your forest trail.

Try blacklight yoga and go roller skating in Ottawa

Blacklight yoga! A silent disco! A roller rink! Yes, the free Glowfair Festival is back, and it will take over 10 downtown blocks of Bank Street on June 14 and 15. There will be lots of live music to enjoy, but that’s just the start. You’ll also find a section devoted to Indigenous artists and performers, a kids’ zone, a magic garden, and something called Art Chaos.

Go shopping in Maxville

Looking for a good excuse for a country drive? The merchants of Maxville are holding a village-wide sidewalk sale on Saturday, June 15.

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