Looking for a fall drive? Seventy-four artists open their doors this weekend, alongside a 172nd fall fair and a street full of scarecrows.
On Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th, two studio tours give you a reason to turn off the 7. The Tweed and Area Studio Tour is in its 28th year, with 22 artists and artisans at 14 stops around Tweed. Start at The Hub in Memorial Park and plan the route from there. The Kawartha Autumn Studio Tour is bigger, 52 artists in 42 studios across Peterborough County from Stoney Lake to Millbrook, with maps at the Art Gallery of Peterborough. Both run 10 to 5 both days, and both are free.
The best part is meeting the person who made the thing on the table, in the room where they made it. Pick four or five stops and let the conversations run long.
Saturday is busy elsewhere, too. The McDonald’s Corners Agricultural Fair holds its 172nd at the Ag Hall, 9 to 4, with livestock, homecrafts and zucchini races, eight dollars at the gate. The turkey dinner that follows is limited to 200 tickets, sold online only, so buy before you go. In Marmora the Scarecrow Festival fills Forsyth Street, 10 to 3. At 1pm Northbrook unveils new Remembrance banners for Plevna, Flinton, Northbrook and Cloyne at the Lions Hall, and at 2pm hundreds of riders take the Pathway of Heroes through Perth under its veteran banners. It is also the last Saturday of the season for the Sharbot Lake and Madoc markets. For the evening, the Arden Legion has a Chinese dinner and quarter auction.
Looking ahead, Pumpkinfest takes over downtown Carleton Place from Friday October 2 through Sunday the 4th, ending with the People and Pets Halloween Parade. The Festival of Small Halls arrives the same weekend, with Australian blues guitarist Lloyd Spiegel at the Maberly Community Hall on the 3rd and an East Coast kitchen party at the Carleton Place Arena on the 4th.
The municipal election is October 26, and the candidates are doing the rounds of the halls: the OSO Hall in Sharbot Lake on Tuesday the 29th, the Carleton Place arena’s upper hall on Thursday October 1, ABC Hall in Bolingbroke on Wednesday the 7th and Studio Theatre Perth on Thursday the 8th.
If you miss this weekend’s tours, Perth has its own on Thanksgiving weekend, seven Brooke Valley studios west of town. Running an event along the corridor this fall? Send it our way and we will list it, free. See you on the road.