Emancipation Celebration Festival

Join us in celebrating the journey of our ancestors at the Underground Railroad’s most northerly terminus, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. Every Civic Holiday Weekend since 1862, the festival brings individuals together to celebrate:

• cultural history, art, and music
• community collaboration and integration
• multiculturalism and heritage

Bring your family and friends for a weekend of music, art and cultural exhibits, keynote speakers, storyboards, crafts, children’s games, education and genealogical forums and exuberant ambience.

 Lay Minister Thomas Henry Miller was a co-originator of the First Emancipation Picnic in 1862. The Emancipation Festival is:

• Longest Continuous Running Emancipation Picnic in North America
• Recognized as the longest continuous running event in beautiful Grey, Bruce & Simcoe Counties
• Final Destination of the 3rd Annual Adventure Cycle 2008 Mile Underground Railroad Tour
• Home to John “Daddy” Hall, Owen Sound’s First Black Settler and Towncrier
• Home of the Historically Recognized British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church, established in 1856 and safe haven to Underground Railroad freedom seekers
• Home of Canada’s oldest synagogue, Billy Bishop war hero and artist Tom Thompson.
• Neighbours to Hanover’s Tommy Burns who fought Jack Johnson in “The Great White Hope”
• Neighbours to the 3rd Best Sunset in the World — Sauble Beach (7 Miles of Olympic Sands - Beach Volleyball - 2000 Olympics )

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