Who hasn’t heard of Winchester Dairyfest? No one, that’s who! Well, at least no one who lives in or near North Dundas. Dairyfest was started in 1988, when Winchester turned 100 years old. It therefore predates North Dundas itself by a full decade. The event was conceived by a committee of merchants to celebrate Winchester’s centennial year.
As the Dairyfest website states: “Joel Steele was one of the founding fathers of Dairyfest, and passed the torch on only after ensuring that Dairyfest was well rooted and an annual event that residents looked forward to every August.”
However, even festivals with sturdy roots can sway in the wind. There was a period of time very recently when many North Dundas residents surely thought Dairyfest was coming to an end, because technically, it did.
The annual Dairyfest event was cancelled in 2020, but not due to the Covid-19 pandemic unlike countless other events including those such as Meet Me on Main Street. In fact, it was in December of 2019 that word first broke of the cancellation of Dairyfest 2020. At the time, the committee simply announced that the festival was “taking a break”. Why? Although money is almost always a factor in matters such as these, perhaps the biggest issue for Dairyfest was achieving the volunteer base needed for it to run.
In 2021, August was fast approaching with no word about Dairyfest when its committee – consisting of just four active members and no chairperson – released a statement that although a 2021 Dairyfest would not happen, the concept of the beloved Winchester tradition was far from dead. The committee pleaded with the community for volunteer help, while deciding not to run a 2021 event because it felt inappropriate at the time to be asking local businesses for sponsorship money while they were still recovering from the financial strains of the pandemic.
Even when Dairyfest surely felt dead and gone to many locals, others were doing their part to remind us that such a time-honoured tradition is never really gone. On August 8, 2021, less than two weeks after the Dairyfest committee confirmed there would be no Dairyfest that year, Farmer John Cinnamon fired up his tractors and ran the traditional Tractor Parade through town and past the Dundas Manor, joined by many neighbours (you can learn more of Farmer John’s story later in this issue).
When a community holds onto its heritage, there is little to stop it from thriving. Thanks to some dedicated and wonderful members of the community, Dairyfest returned in full force in 2022, and is indeed back to its former glory. This year’s Dairyfest will take place August 9 – 11. An events schedule is enclosed, or you can visit https://www.winchesterdairyfest.com/ to learn more. Take the family out and enjoy some truly local fun!
