Wow, this week’s road trip roundup is packed with options—it feels a bit like the Before Times! If you want to get out on your own, there are do-it-yourself fundraising walks and a self-driving scavenger hunt. Choices for outdoor fun include standup comedy in Wellington West and a mountain biking festival in Montebello. Want to stream something from the comfort of home? You can enjoy cutting-edge animation or learn how to cultivate bonsai trees. And there are more fairs, music festivals and artists’ studio tours than you’d be able to visit in a month of Sundays! Whatever you choose to do this week, have fun.
Stream animation of all descriptions
This year, the Ottawa International Animation Festival (September 22 to October 3) is completely online, meaning that you can stream a dizzying variety of feature films and shorts in just about every animation genre imaginable. Jollof Rice: More Than a Dish (see video above) by Ian Keteku is just one of a wide range of shorts in the Canadian Panorama series. Passes start at $35.
Do a self-driving scavenger hunt in Eastern Ontario
Tickets are still available for IODE Laurentian’s Road Trip and e-Scavenger Hunt, which you can tackle anytime between September 24 and October 3 (you can even do it in stages). Participants will receive a guide to secret sites and a list of challenges to complete, as well as ideas for places to shop and eat along the way. It sounds like the challenges are gentle ones, many involving taking photos; I don’t think you’re going to be rappelling down buildings like contestants on The Amazing Race! Tickets are $50 per team and the money goes to support local food banks.
Celebrate mountain biking in Montebello
The first-ever Montebello Mountain Bike Festival is happening this Saturday, September 25. The event will feature food trucks, craft beer, cycling product vendors, live music, standup comedy, the chance to explore 20km of trails and more. It runs from 9am to 9pm, and bike rentals and free parking will be available. Kids 9 and under can attend for free; all others pay $20 per person, which goes toward trail maintenance.
Learn about bonsai online
The Ottawa Bonsai Society is hosting a Virtual Bonsai Show this year. Learn more about cultivating these tiny, delicate trees during an online workshop on Thursday, September 23, at 7pm, or check out a selection of streaming videos anytime before the show ends on Sunday, October 3.
Enjoy a harvest festival in Delta
The Delta Harvest Festival (September 25 and 26) has a little something for just about everyone in the family, from pancake breakfasts and a magic show to live music and a bread-baking contest. There are big book sales and yard sales, outdoor vendors along King Street, kids’ fun at the fairgrounds, and a car show, too. And everyone in the village is being encouraged to decorate their property with a harvest theme. Not all activities are happening on both days; check the PDF on the website for the full schedule.
Laugh, dine and more on Wellington West…and online
The popular Taste of Wellington West festival is back this year (September 21 to October 31) in a blended format that includes both in-person and online events. As well as lots of virtual cooking demonstrations and restaurant showcases hosted by local culinary writer Paula Roy, you can enjoy live entertainment. This weekend in Parkdale Park, for instance, there’s an arts showcase early on Friday evening and a standup comedy fundraiser for the Parkdale Food Centre on Saturday night.
Take the kids to Pumpkinferno in Morrisburg
Every year, Pumpkinferno draws lots of visitors to Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg with intricate displays of carved artificial pumpkins, enlivened with lights and music. This year’s event (September 24 to October 31) looks like it will be no exception, as the online booking system shows that early evening blocks on several weekend nights are already sold out. Kids adore this event, but you don’t need tots in tow to enjoy it; the installations are often quite magical.
Shop your way around Smiths Falls
The Smiths Falls Downtown Business Association is sponsoring the 12th annual Girls’ Night Out on Thursday, September 23, from 4pm to 8pm. Bring your friends, pick up an event passport, then shop and nosh your way around town to earn entries in raffles to be held later that night.
Celebrate Oktoberfest a bit early in Mallorytown
The 1000 Islands Oktoberfest at BUSL Cider in Mallorytown (September 25 and 26) will feature two days of fun, including helicopter rides, live music, rib-sticking food (pizza, sausages, pretzels) and refreshing beverages (cider, beer and hard seltzer).
Savour maple and more in Kemptville
The On the Bend Sugar Shack and the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association are presenting Fall in Love with Maple at the Kemptville Campus Agroforestry Centre on September 25 and 26. From 10am to 4pm, there will be live music, along with guided tours of the forest and the sugar shack. If you want to start the day with a pancake breakfast (available between 10am and 1pm), you’ll need to register in advance for that.
Visit artists all over
Fall is one of the high seasons for artists’ studio tours, and this weekend has no fewer than six on the schedule. You can visit creators in their studios and buy their works at the following events, all of which are running on both September 25 and 26 (the Prince Edward County tour also runs on Friday, September 24):
- West End Studio Tour (Ottawa)
- Chelsea Wakefield Studio Tour (Outaouais)
- Apples and Art (in and around Cornwall, mainly between Ingleside and Dalkeith)
- North Frontenac Back Roads Studio Tour (in and around Plevna and Ompah, about 90 minutes to two hours southwest of Ottawa)
- Bancroft Studio Tour (about three hours west of Ottawa)
- Prince Edward County Studio Tour (south of Belleville, roughly three hours southwest of Ottawa)
Looking for tours later in the fall? See my big list of artists’ studio tours.
Walk, roll, run, bike or swim for a good cause
Several organizations are encouraging people to get active and raise money for various worthy causes, but these aren’t the giant group events of yore; instead, you can challenge yourself on your own schedule, wherever you choose. The GBS/CIDP Foundation of Canada’s Virtual Walk and Roll is a nationwide event with a suggested kickoff time of 10am on Saturday, September 25, but you can raise funds to support research and patient care for these two neurological diseases (as well as a third one called multifocal motor neuropathy) anytime until October 10. And you can walk, roll, run, bike, swim—whatever you like!
The second annual Ottawa Valley Wild Bird Walk is sort of a fundraiser in reverse. First, you make a donation, and then you get a bird checklist you can use when looking for feathered friends during a walk of any length in any location. The centre is looking to raise $40,000 by October 11 to help injured and orphaned birds.
See alpacas in Ompah
If you are among the many people who—quite rightly, in my humble opinion—think alpacas are adorable, you might want to head to Silent Valley Alpaca in Ompah this weekend (September 25 and 26) to visit your favourite fluffy friends. The farm is participating in both National Alpaca Farm Days and the North Frontenac Back Roads Studio Tour, so there will be lots of special activities to enjoy. The farm is about 120km southwest of Ottawa.
Have fun at a fair in Carp or McDonald’s Corners
Two fall fairs await you this weekend in Eastern Ontario: the popular Carp Fair (September 24 to 26) and the smaller McDonald’s Corners Annual Fall Fair (September 25) in Lanark County.
P.S.: Time is running out if you want to do a fall fair road trip; the last fair of the year on my big list is the Metcalfe Fair next weekend.
Get your live music fix at a festival in Ottawa–Gatineau
Three big music festivals are rolling into the capital region this weekend. The 29th annual Festival Country Gatineau is bringing more than a dozen country artists—including Carol Renaud, featured in the video above—to the Centre Communautaire Père Arthur Guertin from September 23 to 26. Both single-concert tickets and festival passes are available.
This weekend also sees a scaled-down (but still impressive) version of RBC Bluesfest coming to Lansdowne Park (September 23 to 25). The lineup includes Tokyo Police Club, the Barenaked Ladies and Jann Arden, and you can choose from day or full-festival passes.
But that’s not all! The Festival Franco-Ontarien is presenting two days of francophone music and other entertainment at Major’s Hill Park on September 24 and 25. (The family-oriented programming is on Saturday during the day.) General-admission and VIP passes are available.
Take a bike trip through Cornwall
A few spots are still left on Escape Tours and Rentals’ day cycling trip in the Cornwall area on Saturday, September 25 (click the date in the link to see info on the tour). This is a fun trip; I tried out a modified version of it this summer. Here’s my post about that outing. The company is also offering the Cornwall trip on Saturday, October 16.
See Shakespeare in Ottawa, Oxford Mills or McDonald’s Corners
This is your last week to catch Love From Afar, the latest show from Ottawa’s A Company of Fools. The Shakespeare mashup, which blends content from a number of the Bard’s plays, will be staged at the MERA Schoolhouse in McDonald’s Corners (September 23), Maplewood Park in Oxford Mills (September 24) and Strathcona Park (September 25).
Browse at a night market in Brockville
The weekly Thursday night artisans’ market between 5–11 Perth Street in Brockville is happening again this week, from 5pm to 8pm. A number of nearby shops are also open late that night to capitalize on the foot traffic. The event will take place rain or shine.
Looking for more ideas for things to see and do in and around Ottawa? Please subscribe to my free weekly newsletter or buy my book, Ottawa Road Trips: Your 100km Getaway Guide.