Elmira Maple Syrup Festival celebrates 60th anniversary

Elmira Maple Syrup Festival draws global visitors People from around the world came to Elmira to enjoy the sweet return of an annual festival.

Saturday marked a major milestone for the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival.

The event celebrated its 60th anniversary with the same great flavours and fun that made it the largest single-day maple syrup festival in the world.

David Bock says he’s been to every installment since the festival opened in 1965. He says the syrup has always been the main attraction.

“It’s always that golden, sweet taste,” Bock said.

More than 120 vendors flooded Arthur Street with food, treats, and merchandise. The event included live music, collectible shows, and family areas for all ages to enjoy.

For Richard Sauder, the festival has grown by leaps and bounds since it first opened.

“My mother was one of the first vendors in the first year that the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival was held,” Sauder said. “There was only several hundred people that attended, compared to nowadays there’s [at least] 80,000.”

The event was first recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest one-day maple syrup festival in 2000, and continues to grow.

Michel Proskurovskyy travelled from Belgium to see the event for himself, and said the combination of syrup with the pancakes did not disappoint.

“I much prefer it. It’s much more dense and it tastes like syrup not condensated milk,” Proskurovskyy told CTV News. “Always my friends tell me about how it’s great in Canada.”

Along with the tasty syrup the festival has given millions of dollars back to the community. More than $1.7 million has gone back to charities and non-profits over the past 60 years.