Perth Festival of the Maples

Apr 23, 2025

As the Perth Festival of the Maples prepares to celebrate our region’s most famous agricultural commodity – sweet, savoury maple syrup – area producers have been hustling to keep up with an incredible sap run this season.

Tressa Oliver of Oliver’s Maple Works – one of a dozen maple syrup producers attending this year’s Festival – jokes that producers are probably the only people who get excited about warmish days and freezing nights. But with the colder weather hanging around longer this year, the sap has run at a record pace in area sugar bushes.

The Festival of the Maples is once again being organized and presented by the Perth & District Chamber of Commerce on Saturday, April 26th from 9am until 4pm. The Festival kicks off with a pancake breakfast at the Perth Royal Canadian Legion Branch 244 from 8:30am to 10:30am, plus the annual Antique & Classic Car Show on Herriott Street.

Families can enjoy the Children’s Playpark in the Tay Basin with bouncy rides, a rock-climbing wall and laser-tag run by Ry-J’s Climbing Adventures. The Playpark also features pony rides, buskers and a petting zoo, along with a rest area in the Crystal Palace with Korny’s Klowns and activities for the kids by the Lanark Highlands Youth Centre.

The Maplefest ‘Sap Tapping’ and ‘Wood Cookie Challenge’ returns to the main stage at 12:30pm when 2-person teams test their skills by drilling spile holes for sap buckets and wielding old-time band saws to clock the fastest log-sawing times.

Musical guests will appear both on the main stage and on a second stage at Gore and Foster Streets .

Free parking is available at the Perth Campus of Algonquin College on Craig Street, with a shuttle courtesy of Martin’s Bus Service. The shuttle drop-off and return pick-up spot is at Craig and Gore Street. For more information, visit the festival website at: festivalofthemaples.com.