Maple Syrup Festival returns for fourth year
- Details
- Published on Thursday, April 7, 2016
By Kira Paterson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
This year marks McCreary’s fourth annual Manitoba Maple Syrup Festival. The festival is a full day of events spotlighting the culture, producers and terrain of the region.
The festival is to be held on Saturday, Apr. 9 this year, with a Maple Syrup Trivia night on Friday evening for those who want to get started early.
Most of the events will be taking place at the McCreary Community Centre and the McCreary Golf and Country Club, with shuttles going between those sites throughout the day. The festival will officially open at 8:00 am on Saturday, with registration at the Community Centre.
Activities at the Community Centre will include a kid’s area and a small animal display, both of which will be open all day. From 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, the Centre will have their Maple Festival Market open, where there will be local artisans and producers selling their merchandise and maple products will be for sale.
The evening will feature dinner and entertainment. At 4:00 pm, Christina the Crazy Hooper will put on a hoola hoop show followed by a workshop where she’ll teach spectators how to become crazy hoopers themselves. A French Canadian supper will be available starting at 4:30 pm, featuring classic French Canadian dishes like Tourtiere. Then at 5:00 pm, the Walking Wolf Dancers and Singers will hold a workshop, teaching festival goers about traditional Aboriginal dances, then at 7:00 pm will perform a show.
For those who enjoy the more outdoorsy activities, don’t forget to stop by the golf course. There, they will have President’s Choice and Frontier Fiddlers playing for entertainment. A treasure and scavenger hunt for the whole family is set up around the course grounds. There are numerous maple themed activity stations at the golf course where visitors can stop. Attendees can try maple taffy at the country club deck and meet a maple syrup producer. There will be a chance to learn how to tap a maple tree and cook bannock over an open fire. There will also be horse drawn wagon rides and a maple bush tour.
Tickets are available online at the website the festival just launched this year. The address is www.mbmaplesyrupfest.ca and more details about the location, area accommodation, ticket prices and the full schedule are included on the site.
