Comments Off on Riverfest Elora 2024 – Three day summer festival
Centre Wellington’s “little-big” music and arts festival by the river, is back! Riverfest Elora’s 14th edition sees its run as one of Canada’s premier festivals continue, offering top-tier headliners, exciting up-and-comers, acts of all genres, local artisans, food trucks and craft brews, all within a majestically natural setting along the banks of the famed Grand River in Elora — Ontario’s most beautiful village.
2024 Lineup – We’re back with another incredible lineup for our lucky number year 14 with three stages and over 50 local, national, and international acts, from household names, to eclectic acts to rising stars. Find your new favourite artist beneath the warm summer sun or the sparkling canopy of the night sky.
We can’t guarantee you’ll get much sleep Riverfest weekend, but we’ve got plenty of places to stay — from cliffside campsites to cozy hotels and B&B’s.
Saturday mornings begin with a forage for fun, friends and food!
Find fresh locally grown produce, locally raised meats, home-baked treats and artisan products too.
Come enjoy coffee, make new friends and meet the farmers who feed us.
Beginning May 7, bring your own bags, head down to the river by beautiful Bissell Park and come be a part of our special community every Saturday morning until Late October.
Saturday mornings begin with a forage for fun, friends and food!
Find fresh locally grown produce, locally raised meats, home-baked treats and artisan products too.
Come enjoy coffee, make new friends and meet the farmers who feed us.
Beginning May 7, bring your own bags, head down to the river by beautiful Bissell Park and come be a part of our special community every Saturday morning until Late October.
Gather your friends and head down to the river for three awesome days and three epic nights of mor than 50 of the hottest acts you’ll see at any music festival anywhere ever. Seriously.
Riverfest Elora is literally the coolest ticket in town.
This year’s line-up includes headliners Alessia Cara, The Glorious Sons, Mother Mother and more than 40 performers on three stages, to keep the music going.
You’ve never been to a music festival of this scale in a place like this. Come down to the river and dance with us!
Bring your blanket and stretch our in Bissell Park to enjoy the talent and fun of live theatre with the Elora Community Theatre’s production of “The Taming of the Shrew.”
Shakespeare in the Park has become a popular summer tradition. We invite you to come out and pass the hat.
Performances take place at specific times from August 5th – August 14th.
Weather permitting. Please check the Elora Community Theatre website for show times.
Comments Off on Grand adventures in Elora & Fergus
Thrill Rides
Forget amusement parks, our thrill rides are the real deal and Mother Nature is in control. You’ll never get a better view of the Elora Gorge than from the waters of the Grand River, and you’ll never have more fun than doing so than on a big, bouncy inflatable inter-tube.
Choose your own adventure to suit your thrill tolerance. From the rush of water rapids in the echo of the Elora Gorge, to a more relaxed go-with-the-flow of a journey on the Grand River between Fergus and Elora, you’ve got options. And if you’ve got time, why not do both?
Tubing in the Elora Gorge Conservation Area
Tubing is fast, fun and unforgettable. Prepare to make a big splash and scream a little, (or a lot) on a self-guided journey that moves fast over rapids and slows down in the smooth warm pools between the limestone cliffs inside the Elora Gorge Conservation Park. There is no view like it.
Start your journey by renting your equipment at the launch point inside the Elora Gorge Conservation Area and launch yourself into the river rapids for a twisting, turning journey. You wanted adventure? You’ve found it. Book online at www.grandriver.ca
Make a splash in the Elora Gorge Conservation Area!
Photo by Bill Longshaw
Elora Rapids
Elora Rapids gives you two options to experience the Grand River. Book your inflatable tubes and gear online and then select the route best suited for you. If you’re up for the rush of river inside the Elora Gorge Conservation Area, you can rent your equipment from them and venture into the park’s tube launch site.
But if you want to a more relaxed river experience, with less bounce and more go-with-flow, tubing is equally as fun. Elora Rapids will send you down river, but first they’ll drop you off upstream. Their shuttle bus drop-off service will take you to launch point in downtown Fergus, where you and your friends will board your tubes and meander along the expanse of the Grand River in casual comfort, enjoying the views of the homes, greenspaces and surely some wildlife along the shorelines all the way to the Elora. You’ll get a rivers edge view of Fergus and Elora; a unique perspective for two distinctive towns.
Tubes and safety gear from Elora Rapid Rides Submitted photo
Elora Raft Rides
Maybe you’d prefer to ride the rapids on a River Bug. Not an actual bug, of course. That would be silly. We mean a River Bug, from the Elora Raft Rides. River Bugs are a one-person catamaran raft that puts you in the driver’s seat right on top of the water for a journey of fun you won’t forget. Take the trip down the Grand River from Confederation Park in Fergus to Bissell Park in Elora to enjoy an experience that is better than smooth sailing and is sure to be a blast.
Admit it, you really want to tell your friends you’ve been on a River Bug. Yeah, you do. www.eloraraftrides.com
Elora Paddle Company
Paddlers know the pleasure that comes from exploring the beauty of the Grand River from the smooth glide of a canoe so close to the water that your sensory becomes one with nature. The rest of the world seems to fall away with the motion of the paddle stroke dipping into the shining water and the shared experience of maneuvering a canoe with your fellow adventurer. It’s a very Canadian thing to do.
Get close to nature with the Elora Paddle Company. Photo by Devlin Macpherson
Don’t know how? No worries. There’s no experience necessary. The experienced team at Elora Paddle Company will suit you up and give you easy instructions to set your course on this gentle stretch of river. The 45-minute rental gives you a self-guided tour from the dock ideally located in the heart of Elora. From here you can set a course eastward to beautiful Bissell Park, where you can paddle up to be waterfall and tour past the natural beauty of rocks and find treasure in the fossils on the shoreline, or paddle west out to the centre of town get a view of the historic town from the water.
The Elora Paddle Company has created an authentic family-friendly Elora experience for those who know there is nothing like getting out on the water. Book your canoe online and get ready for fun. www.elorapaddlecompany.ca.
Elora Raft Rides
Sit back and let someone else navigate the waters, learn about local history, see the natural beauty of the area and tour the town from the waters of the Grand River with Elora Raft Rides. Their unique, locally-fabricated watercraft will take you and yours on a pleasure cruise in the comfort of their Classic Punts. They have so many cruising options we don’t have room to explain all the cool things you can do with Elora Raft Rides, so visit them at www.eloraraftrides.com and create a memorable experience all your own.
Riverbugs are river-friendly. Photo by Bill Longshaw
Saturday mornings begin with a forage for fun, friends and food!
Find fresh locally grown produce, locally raised meats, home-baked treats and artisan products too.
Come enjoy coffee, make new friends and meet the farmers who feed us.
Beginning May 7, bring your own bags, head down to the river by beautiful Bissell Park and come be a part of our special community every Saturday morning until Late October.
Comments Off on Our new normal looks different, but we’re still Grand and Gorgeous
We couldn’t have predicted the ramifications of what COVID-19 would do to our communities, our businesses, our festivals and events – and our future – particularly in an area where tourism is vital to our local economy.
But we know that the very things that make Fergus and Elora “Grand and Gorgeous” are the vibes of our neighbourhoods, the richness of our natural environment, our vibrant shops, boutiques, bars and pubs, and the arts and culture that aren’t just dates on a calendar, but are the essence of who we are together.
Sure, it’s different now. For a little while longer, we’re going to go with the flow and do our part to flatten the curve without losing our shape (we’ve got fabulous curves). As we roll out openings and make changes to our incredible shops and boutiques, restaurants and pubs, for the safety of everyone, we hope you’ll be patient.
Our trails are spectacular and fresh air is always healthy. We invite you to come and explore the views. The autumn colours right now are absolutely spectacular. Getting outdoors and taking in the sites is not only good for you, but it’s good for us too. It means we all remember what matters, how grateful we are to have the beauty of nature, and keeps us active while apart. Because one day, when this is over – and it will be over – we’re going to gather again. And we want you to come back. You’ll know your way around for your next visit!
And one day soon, when the world returns to a place where we can come together and celebrate the good life, you can bet we’re going to have some epic events. Better days ahead.
A unique town deserves a unique music festival. There is only music festival like this.
Riverfest Elora 2018 will be held in Bissell Park on Friday, August 17, Saturday, August 18 and Sunday, August 19. Don’t miss your chance to dance down by the river.
Get ready for three days of art, food trucks, arts and craft vendors, community and of course, music! Celebrating ten years of the little music festival that grew to attract major headliners, this year promises to be spectacular.
Where else can you see a line-up like The Flaming Lips, Carly Rae-Jepsen, Blue Rodeo and July Talk – just to name a few?
Happy 10th anniversary
Riverfest Elora,
you charmer, you.
We’ve waited all year for this party. ALL YEAR. And we’re okay with it because, we already know that Riverfest Elora 2018 is totally worth the wait.
How can we be so sure? Experience. We haven’t missed a Riverfest yet, which means we have TEN years of adoring the little backyard festival that grew into an epic summer music festival and yet, has never lost its charm. True fact.
You have likely been to many concerts in many venues and taken part in music festivals in all kinds of venues from sports stadiums, outdoor arenas and maybe a few big parties held in cow pastures. Yep, us too. Good times, but no charm there.
But when you plan a giant party in Elora’s Bissell Park, with the beautiful Grand River running alongside it, complete with three stages, food trucks and vendors galore, an Artisan Alley, beer and spirits, art exhibits and beautiful greenspace all around, in the heart of one of the prettiest villages in Ontario, honestly, you cannot beat that. You just can’t. Because, when you imagine the ultimate music festival with the audience experience in mind – you grow it organically. And well, you can’t go wrong. So come and get charmed.
Because the Riverfest Elora organizers turns this ….
Into this ….
TEN ways we believe Riverfest Elora will charm you
into becoming a true heart Riverfriend:
They care about the environment. Riverfest Elora is a bottled water free and waste conscious event. They were awarded the Live Music Industry Awards’Green Operations Festival of the Year 2018, for all their efforts to keep the festival environmentally-friendly. You won’t find packaged water here. Period. Festival-goers are encouraged to bring their own refillable water bottles, or to bring their reuseable Riverfest Elora mugs from previous years. But if you are new to the scene and plan to enjoy a beverage or three, you can purchase your very own Riverfest Elora Mug for $6. Free water stations are on-site to keep you hydrated. Just a head’s up though – this year, plastic straws are banned too.
Riverfest Elora loves their beer, wine and cider They only serve the good stuff. So, remember – bring your resuseable Riverfest Elora mugs from previous years, or buy a brand new one for $6. Drink tokens are $7. The line-up moves fast, so no worries there. And just think of all the friends you’ll make in line.
Three stages. Back-to-back performances. Triple bang for your buck. Be sure to plan your bands with the FREE Riverfest Elora App … and you won’t miss a thing
Foodies love Riverfest Elora. It tastes good! Check out the complete list of vendors tucked into the food village set a short walk down the boardwalk. The food options are as diverse as the acts playing the festival, so we’re pretty sure your taste buds will be charmed too.
Riverfest Elora is joining the Keychange Pledge, a European initiative that aims to empower women to transform the future of the music industry, encouraging festivals to achieve a 50-50 gender balance by 2022. Riverfest has always strived for gender parity and for 2018 features 55 per cent of the acts that will take the stage fit the female-fronted band goal.
Yoga. Mind. Body. Soul. Sun Salutations. A little downward-dog. Stretch that musical festival experience with the incredible sessions of Yoga with Tania. You’re welcome.
Karaoke makes everyone a star, right? Sure it does. So sign up your friend or let out your inner Carly Rae Jepsen out and join the Boo Radley Project as you belt out your emotions in song. Or, just keep up with the live band. These guys are hilarious and they’re here for you.
Artisan Alley is full of unique treasures by unique artisans, because who wants the same-old, same-old? Nobody, that’s who. Browse. Chat. Shop. Get inspired.
Hockey. Yep, hockey. On Friday, August 17, the crew from Riverfest Elora are getting involved in the McGinn Brothers BIG Game in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Centre Wellington. This charity ball hockey tournament takes place in the groovy town of Fergus, (just a slap shot away) and will welcome NHL players Jamie, Tye and Brock McGinn, Ryan O’Reilly, Nathan Beaulieu, Lawson Crouse, Tyler McGregor, Korey Jarvis, Rich Peverly and more. Doesn’t get more Canadian than this really, does it? And nobody will yell “car!” because the street will be closed, so it will just be hockey, hockey and more hockey. And then rock’n roll. Sigh. It’s good to be Canadian.
Oh – and there’s like a whole bunch of awesome bands playing too. You knew that right? There’s about 60 bands. And after parties.
Check out the 10th anniversary Riverfest Elora line-up!
(Photos: Dear Rouge and Blue Rodeo will return to Riverfest Elora to help celebrate the big anniversary!)
So trust us when we say, you’ve never experienced anything like Riverfest Elora. When we say EPIC, we mean it! Pack in as much as you can. Enjoy Elora. Visit Fergus. Charm on every corner. You’ll be a Riverfriend in no time! Rock on, people. Rock on.
