Ruthven Apple Festival offers great autumn weekend in Ontario

By Harold Merton, Publisher

If you look hard enough you will find that there are a lot of summertime
festivals in some of the smaller towns in Canada. Quite often these
festivals can be a great place for a weekend RV outing. One we found last year was in southern Ontario near Point Pelee, Canada's most southern point.

The communities of Kingsville, Wheatley and Leamington are in close
proximity to the Point Pelee area and one small town in their midst -
Ruthven, has hosted an annual Apple Festival for over 26 years. It is
usually held in the last weekend of September. The Travel Trailer Clubs Association of Ontario held their fall campout in conjunction with the Apple Festival last year and we thought that would make a great outing. We were right! The proceeds from this annual event go to support Community Living Essex County, an organization that supports over 500 people with an intellectual disability and their families throughout Essex County.

In 2004 over 45,000 people attended the two day event bringing the total financial support over the years to $410,000 plus. The Ruthven Apple Festival is the result of hard work by a dedicated force of volunteers and they do a fabulous job. It is a great event and one we
felt our readers would like to know about. In a field next to Colasanti's Tropical Gardens complex in the rural area of Ruthven, a huge stage is erected to accommodate the long list of entertainment that highlights the festival.

Photos by Harold Merton

From noon on Saturday to early evening, an assortment of local artists entertained the huge crowd in an area adjacent to a huge tented craft fair. One Sunday at noon the entertainment began again and continued to supper time. There was a mini-carnival on hand to offer games and rides to the kids and the food, craft booths and farmers' market brought thousands to the event.

The major highlight of the festival schedule is the annual parade held on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. It begins at Clifford's Produce on County Road 34 and winds it way to the Colasanti's property. This is without a doubt the best small town parade we have had the opportunity of viewing in a great many years. There were bands, antique cars, majorettes, floats and more. It is what many of the locals gather for each year. Prior to the parade the Ruthven Oddfellows held a buffet breakfast and the crowds started to gather early for both the breakfast and the parade. There are plenty of activities to keep the youngsters busy.

They can enjoy the rides, face painting and many other features of the craft and food display area. This festival seems to be a "must" for local families. The entertainment is live and non-stop for the two days and the Silver Apple Car Show draws a lot of attention. We found it a very enjoyable weekend when combined with the activities of the TTCAO rally. If you are looking for great camping weekend near the end of the camping season then this would be a good one. There is plenty of camping available in the area including Leisure Lake Campground at Ruthven and Campers Cove in Wheatley area.