VANIER SUGAR FESTIVAL

Get your maple fix this spring at the Vanier Sugar Festival!

After a resounding success last year, the Vanier Sugar Festival is back at Richelieu Park.

This flagship event in the Vanier Museopark’s programming has been celebrating maple time traditions for 41 years now. Visitors can learn about artisanal maple syrup production at the only urban sugar shack in the country! This cultural and tasty event brings together young and old alike for a multitude of activities that are sure to please everyone: maple syrup season meals and maple taffy, free musical performances by local artists, lumberjack skills competitions, a collective art project, and many other surprises!

Save the dates for the 2026 Sugar Festival:

Monday, March 9, 5:30 p.m.: 19th edition of Soup(e) Splash
Saturday, March 28, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: Family and Community Days
Sunday, March 29, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: Family and Community Days

While waiting for the program details, relive the best moments of the 2025 Sugar Festival with this video. We hope to see many of you there!

Video credit: City Park Production

Monday, March 18, 2024, from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m.

17th Annual Soup(e) Splash

A friendly culinary competition in which Ottawa’s finest kitchens compete to create the best maple syrup soup. So far, Coconut Lagoon, Le St-Laurent, Fraser Café and Play food + winelast year’s jury winner, have confirmed their presence at this gastronomic fundraiser!

LOCATION: Kiwanis Hall, Richelieu-Vanier Community Centre (300 des Pères-Blancs Ave.)
Tickets ($40) are on sale now:

Jury
Raffle prizes

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, and Thursday, March 21, 2024, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

School Days

Schools in the greater Ottawa region are invited to take part in several fun activities, where children will discover the various traditions of the sugar season through six different stations, in addition to attending a unique and original musical performance.

All the places available have been filled.

Friday, March 22, 2024, 5:00 p.m

Dinner and dance evening to the sound of old-time traditions

Following the astounding success of last year’s “Soirée canadienne”, Louis Racine and Les Pourquoi Pas return to the Centre Pauline-Charron for a dance party featuring traditional music.
Celebrate the sweet season with this “Soirée canadienne”!

LOCATION : Centre Pauline-Charron (164 Jeanne-Mance St.)
Cost: $15 per person. All proceeds will go to the Centre Pauline-Charron.
Dinner:
chicken (with a maple sauce), vegetables, mashed potatoes and turnip, pouding chômeur
Get your tickets at the Centre Pauline-Charron online box office: https://bit.ly/SoireeCanadienne2024

Saturday, March 23, 2024, and Sunday, March 24, 2024, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Family Days!

Join the festivities all weekend long to enjoy the traditions of artisan maple syrup production at its best! A wide variety of activities are offered for fun with family and friends. LOCATION:

Richelieu Park and Vanier Sugar Shack (300 and 320 des Pères-Blancs Ave.)

ACTIVITIES :

Maple taffy tasting at the Vanier Sugar Shack ($);
Free musical performances by local, emerging and up-and-coming artists throughout the day;
Sugar season meals served under a large tent ($). Tickets can only be purchased onsite, under various small tents. Cash, credit cards and mobile payment will be accepted.
Inflatable games, activities and indoor parcours for toddlers presented by ON y va! and HIPPY;
Mini-farm and pony rides with Countryside Petting Farm ($);
Axe throwing with LumberJaxe ($);
Book sale at the Vanier branch of the Ottawa Public Library;
Lumberjack Skills Competition (Sunday, March 24, 1 p.m.).

NEW:

In collaboration with DeSerres, and visual artist Max Black, collective artworks will be created throughout the Festival. Archival pictures of the Museopark will be transformed into large-format paint by numbers canvas. Festival-goers will be invited to leave a mark of their visit to the 2024 Sugar Festival!
A biergarten will be set up, and festival-goers will be able to enjoy a variety of beers from the Festival’s official brewery, Orléans Brewing Co.,including their famous maple beer ($);
A variety of coffees and hot chocolates from Starbucks ($).
5 km race open to all. Stéphanie Plante, City Councillor for Vanier-Rideau, is taking advantage of Festival activities to invite people to run or walk through the streets of Vanier and Beechwood Cemetery. Profits will be donated to the Vanier Museopark.

Help us keep the Sugar Festival free for everyone!

The Sugar Festival is a free family and community event. To do so, the Vanier Museopark relies on many sources of funding, including fundraisers. This year, the Museopark is offering festival-goers to show their support to the Festival in a stylish manner: beanies featuring the Sugar Festival logo are now on sale on the Museopark’s website.

Two models are available, with or without pom-poms, for $40 (taxes included).
Profits will be used to finance the many activities of the Festival.

Get your beanie now, but hurry up, quantities are limited!

Buy your beanie just here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/museoparc-vanier

Become a Volunteer

The Sugar Festival exists because of its many volunteers. We need you – and your precious time – to make the Festival a success once again! If you’re interested and available, fill in the registration form here.

Merci à nos partenaires

Le Muséoparc Vanier tient à souligner que l’organisation du Festival des sucres 2024 se fait grâce à la généreuse contribution financière de ses partenaires et souhaite les remercier sincèrement :

Thanks to our partners

The Vanier Muséoparc would like to acknowledge that the 2025 Sugar Festival is made possible thanks to the generous financial contributions of its partners, and would like to express its sincere gratitude to them: