This is the first of these. Every other Thursday, we’ll tell you what’s worth stopping for between Ottawa and Peterborough — verified against the people actually running it, not scraped off a listicle. Some issues will have a headline. This one doesn’t, and that’s a fair introduction to the road: for most of July, the 7 doesn’t run on festivals. It runs on a weekly rhythm you can set a summer by.
Start with Friday. Carleton Place puts on The Pipes Are Calling at Veterans Memorial Park at 6pm — bagpipe tribute concerts, Friday evenings through to the end of August, and yes, it carries down the river. Two hours west, the Havelock Farmer & Artisan Market runs 1 to 6 right on the south side of the highway, food vendors from 11: produce, meats, maple syrup, baking. It is the rare market you can hit on the drive home from work.
Saturday is the good one. Perth’s farmers’ market at the Crystal Palace by the Tay Basin, 8 to 1, is the best Saturday morning on the corridor and we’ll keep saying so. Carleton Place runs 8:30 to 12:30 at Market Square behind the town hall, rain or shine. Sharbot Lake’s is lakeside by the beach, 9 to 12 — produce, preserves, butter tarts. You could do all three in a morning if you started early and didn’t linger, but lingering is the entire point.
Weeknights, then. Marmora’s Lions Music in the Park goes Tuesdays 6 to 8 at Memorial Park, a different act each week; bring a lawn chair, because there isn’t one waiting for you. Peterborough Musicfest — Canada’s longest-running free-admission music festival, now in its 39th season — plays Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8pm at Del Crary Park on the waterfront. And next Thursday the 16th, Carleton Place starts Jammin’ at the Junction, free outdoor concerts at Carleton Junction, running the rest of the month. Back in two weeks, when the last Saturday in July turns out to have a proper destination attached to it. See you on the road.