TurtleFest set records on many fronts

TurtleFest was another success with wall-to-wall people downtown on Saturday for the annual street festival. There was something for people of all ages, from the bouncy castles to vendors, food trucks, and musical entertainment throughout the day. (Jeff Helsdon Photo).

By Jeff Helsdon

LJI Reporter

TurtleFest was another success, setting records in several different ways over the weekend.

The event saw record attendance, a record number of vendors, the highest number of food vendors, and several new features.

Last year, 30,000 people attended, a number confirmed by an independent analyst. Mark Renaud, CEO of the Tillsonburg District BIA, noted that the crowd seemed larger in 2025.

“We had many, many new faces at the festival. There were buses from Toronto,” he said explaining this was from a tour operator that chose day trips

“There was a family that flew in from Calgary,” added Vanessa Fortner, BIA events and marketing coordinator. “They were family of one of the bands that played.”

With sunny weather and enough of a breeze to keep it from being too hot, it worked in the event’s favour. Renaud noted there were 15 events in Oxford County on Saturday.

“It was the biggest and most attended event in the county on Saturday,” Renaud said.

Vendors lined both sides of Broadway from Bridge Street to Oxford Street. With more than 140 and another 14 food trucks, it was record  participation. Renaud said the vendors were pleased with the results.

“We’ve had a number of emails today from vendors who contacted us and said put me down for next year,” he said on Monday.

The vendors ranged from downtown businesses that had a booth in front of their stores to other local businesses, service clubs, and out-of-town retailers.

“A lot of it was showcasing local Ontario or Canadian made products,” Renaud said. “That was the focus of a lot of the booths.”

New this year was Entrepreneur Alley, sponsored by Shaw’s Ice Cream. All participants in this area were under the age of 16, and Shaw’s sponsored it as a noted local entrepreneurial family.

“It was just every bit as well done as a professional corporation,” Renaud said.

“You could just see the vendors were so proud of their work,” Fortner added. “They were happy people were coming to their booth. It was heartwarming.”

Also new was the Adventure Zone, which featured displays of agricultural equipment, a display from the Gay Lea Dairy Museum in Aylmer, and the Tillsonburg FC soccer club in the parking lot adjacent to CIBC. This area had previously hosted a car show, but Renaud noted that there were several car shows scheduled for the same weekend, so the organizers decided to pay tribute to the area’s agricultural heritage.

There were also three automobile dealerships amongst the displays, featuring Ontario-made vehicles.

The Reptilia exhibit, which had three shows, was a hit.

“That is a natural tie-in with the turtle theme of TurtleFest,” Renaud said. “The kids were mesmerized.”

Bands played throughout the day, including locals and Juno nominee Adrian Sutherland from Attawapiskat, who was on tour. These led up to headliner Texas King, which took the stage at 9 p.m.

“That was probably the most well-attended concert we’ve had downtown in a long time,” Renaud said. “The street was full all night.”

Annandale House events

The success of TurtleFest downtown was echoed at Annandale House. A variety of displays were present there, with a record attendance of 1,300 people on Saturday.

Kathleen Watkin, culture and heritage program coordinator with Annandale National Historic Site, said having new and exciting things drew people.

“The weather also helped,” she said. “We did a lot of collaboration with the street fair. That helped a lot with the communication and ensuring we are part of the street fair.”

Amongst those new events were a Theatre Tillsonburg dress-up photo station to promote its Christmas show, a talk about preserving native turtles from the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, the opening of the museum’s Tillsonburg 1825 and Community Living Tillsonburg’s 70th anniversary. Watkin said the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society seed-planting activity was the biggest draw.

Returning at Annandale House was the Toronto Lego Club handing out free Lego turtle kits. Watkin said there is a different turtle each year, and these have become collector’s items. Scale Nature Park’s display of turtles and snakes is a returning feature that is also popular.

The Friday night movie on the lawn was complemented by food trucks, games, and rock painting crafts prior to the show. This drew about 500 people on Friday night – which was an increase - although Watkin said the 100 people who attended the movie was down. She said this was likely due to the cooler weather.

“We feel it was an extremely successful,” Watkin said. “We look forward to doing it again, and adding to it, next year.”

Tillsonburg’s largest annual event started Friday night with a ribbon cutting at the Station Arts Centre as the Slow and Steady exhibit opened. This exhibit is a people’s choice exhibit featuring art that displays turtles in various mediums. Oxford MPP Ernie Hardeman was on hand to celebrate the opening of TurtleFest, an event supported by a provincial Experience Ontario grant that provided organizers with funding to help festivals in need of financial and volunteer assistance.

Traditionally, Rogers has been a huge sponsor of TurtleFest through its Country 107.3 station in Tillsonburg. However, with the selling of the station in process, the communications giant didn’t sponsor this year.

“This year created unique challenges for Turtlefest,” Renaud said. “We had to pivot from the traditional reliable funding and that allowed us to be more creative with the entertainment.”

With the Experience Ontario grant, a one-time initiative, a provincial representative attended to ensure that all commitments made in the application were met.

“They were very thrilled with everything,” Renaud said. “The size of the festival for the size of the community, punching above its weight. They couldn’tå believe how busy it was and the fact it was an economic fully barrier free event.”

He heard through the weekend that people couldn’t believe the event was free unless people bought something from the vendors or food booths. There was free entertainment, free food and free music.

The Town of Tillsonburg was also a big contributor to the event. Mayor Deb Gilvesy paid tribute to the volunteer organizers of TurtleFest.

“Behind every booth, every sign, every music note playing in the background, there are volunteers. Incredible, hard-working people who've poured their time, energy and heart into making the day possible,” she said. “From the setup to the final cleanup, it's our volunteers — our neighbours — who are the real heroes of this festival.”

And those heroes have already started planning for next year.

“We actually had to turn down vendors because we didn’t have room,” Renaud said. “The committee will have a discussion when we have our debrief to create more space.”

Vendor forms will be available at the end of January. Organizers know one of their challenges already will be filling the funding gap that was helped this year by the provincial grant.