Thousands of visitors headed to downtown Elmira on Saturday for the 62nd annual Elmira Maple Syrup Festival. “It’s not too cold today, the suns out. It’s a good time,” Megan Dill, a visitor said. “We’ve got beautiful sunshine, the wind is a little cold, but I think people are enjoying themselves. There’s a tremendous number of people out, so I think it should be a successful year,” Warren Trask, a farmer with Sunlane Farms Maple Syrup, said. Every year between 60,000 and 80,000 visitors come to check out what organizers call “The World’s Largest Single Day Maple Syrup Festival.” Festival Headquarters opened at 7 a.m. and a pancake flipping contest took place at the Woolwich Memorial Complex from 10 a.m. until noon. According to the festival’s website, the event was first held on April 10, 1965. Since then, it has grown into a springtime staple for many people throughout Ontario. “It’s very crowded,” Dill said. “I wouldn’t be shocked if we came close to 80,000 [people] again this year,” Marc McInerney, chair of the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival Committee, said. “Every year there’s enhancements. Every year the smiles are bigger. Every year we try and do more for the community with the revenue that we get from the sale of pancakes and everything else. So, it feels wonderful.” Organizers said it’s a great way to bring people to Elmira but also helps support the community. All revenue is given to both charitable and not-for-profit organizations “So many of the groups that we support are community-based and it puts a lot less pressure on them when they can take advantage of the grant system from the festival. It also improves engagement. I think we find that the groups that benefit from the festival come out and they do exactly what you’re seeing behind us here, participating in the festival pancake contest, on the volunteer committee, it’s very important. It’s a symbiotic relationship really,” McInerney said. Syrup could be purchased all over the festival. “We won the runner up for the top syrup for the festival for the last two years, so we’re trying it out again. We’re hoping to sell probably 20 per cent of our crop here today,” Trask said. The festival is considered a true sign of spring. Those who’ve been here before saying it has changed a bit. “I remember 50 years ago, coming to the syrup festival and every other booth used to be a syrup booth, and now you come here, and you can walk half of main street and not see a maple syrup booth, so it’s a different atmosphere now than it was,” Trask said. But one thing that is the same is the chance to eat a pancake breakfast. People had no issue standing in a long line to get their hands on some this year. “They’re so yummy,” Hudson, a visitor said. “By quarter to 7 this morning they were starting to lineup, and by 8 o’clock they were starting to snake back and forth. So to me, it’s just crazy the number of people that come for the pancakes,” Trask said. Meanwhile, over at the pancake flipping contest, teams were made up of groups that benefit from or volunteer with the event. “We just work well together and have a rhythm you know?” Township of Woolwich Mayor Sandy Shantz said after competing in the contest with a township team. McInerney said the festival made some minor tweaks this year, but this summer Arthur Street is expected to be repaved so he’s looking forward to how that will impact next years festival. “Project will be done this summer, so it’s going to be very very good,” McInerney said.
