Despite the weekend thunderstorm, thousands of people visited the Paris Fairgrounds for the Paris Butter Tart and Food Truck Fest on Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26, 2024.
The festival, organized by All Canadian Events, featured around 165 vendors including a variety of local artisans and 30-plus butter tart bakers from all over southern Ontario.
The event showcased both classic recipes and unique variations to satisfy the taste buds, including gluten-free, dairy free, vegan and keto friendly tarts for those with food sensitivities.
For those looking for something more savoury, an array of food trucks were also on-site selling gourmet poutine and tater-tot dishes, pretzels, pizza in a cone, pierogies, and more. As well, there were plenty of hot sauce vendors set up for the Smokin’ Hot Expo.
While visitors shopped for items like handmade soaps, jewellery and crochet creations from the 35 vendors inside the exhibition room, many took the opportunity to play lawn games, listen to the live entertainment or cool down with a bubbly refreshment in the beer garden outside.
New to this year’s event was a kids lounge that featured even more games, a ball pit, Lego tent, bubble bucket, face painter and live music.
“This time around, we wanted to add a small area for the kids and it’s been great,” said Christine Ivany, festival organizer. “It’s funny and interesting to see because it’s really just some old backyard school- style games but they’ve really been loving it all day.”
As always, before heading out, many attendees took the opportunity to pose for a snap-shot memory with one of the various photo set-ups around the grounds, including a Friends themed couch and the Great Canadian Butter Tart tour sign.
Ivany said that despite Saturday’s thunderstorm, she was happy to see that it didn’t scare anyone away and that they still had several thousand visitors throughout the event.
“In all honesty, we were thinking, ‘who’s going to come to this with this weather?’ But it was so busy and we ended up having a few thousand people come out,” she said. “Even in the morning when it was just blowing rain, people were standing there with umbrellas and raincoats, and I couldn’t help but think ‘wow, these are really our die-hards.’”
For London residents, Kenia Ferrer and Dallas Cannon, the two said this was their third time attending the annual event, and as always, they weren’t disappointed.
“Out of all the market type events we’ve found this is always one of the best. There’s a lot of unique ideas and creativity that seems to go into it. A lot of the events we’ve gone to, especially in London, are just so similar, but then you come here and you see all the small businesses and their unique creations and it’s different then all the rest. Not only that, but it’s more affordable compared to at home and the vendors all have pretty fair pricing which is nice.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
