self-guided trails enable you to enjoy them at your leisure. Passes are available to purchase at the Stratford Tourism Alliance, 47 Downie Street, and they are valid for a week.
SEASON:
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
LOCATION:
Downtown Stratford and surrounding area
WEBSITE:
www.visitstratford.ca/stratford-bacon-and-ale-trail
www.visitstratford.ca/stratford-chocolate-trail
HIGHLIGHT:
Opportunity to sample locally produced bacon, craft beer, and chocolate
SEASON:
Summer, Fall
LOCATION:
Lake Victoria
WEBSITE:
www.rotarystratford.com/dragon-boat-home/
HIGHLIGHT:
A high-energy community event on the water
DRAGON BOATS
The annual Rotary Club of Stratford Dragon Boat Festival, a single day of Hong Kong-style dragon boat races, takes place in September on Lake Victoria. You can join thousands of participants and spectators who contribute to the spirit and positive energy of the event. Long canoes adorned with mythical Chinese dragons slip through the water. Brightly dressed paddlers, arms glistening in the sun, muscles straining, shout encouragement to one another. People lining the shore scream and cheer in support. Paddlers sit in pairs facing forward, and the first two set the pace. The drummer, urging the paddlers forward, synchronizes the beat of the drum to the pacers to signal the need for more or less power. The steerer stands at the back of the boat.
Mixed teams, women’s teams, breast-cancer teams, and community event hospice teams race down the 500-metre, four-lane course. The first team to put the nose of their dragon across the finish line wins. Mixed teams must have sixteen to twenty paddlers, with no less than half being female. Breast-cancer teams consist of twenty breast-cancer-survivor paddlers and a female drummer. The steer person may be male. The community event hospice teams, unique to Stratford, require a maximum of sixteen paddlers with no less than half the paddlers female.
The Stratford Dragon Boat Club is open to anyone who wants to learn to paddle. The Stratford Women’s Team is one of the longest existing all-female dragon boat teams in North America. Seven paddlers from the Stratford Juniors, ages eleven to eighteen, have raced at the world championships.
FESTIVAL CRICKET COMPETITION
The Stratford Festival’s cricket tradition began in the 1950s when Tyrone Guthrie and other British theatrical celebrities arrived in Stratford to be a part of the city’s new Shakespearean theatre. As a break from the pressures of tent construction, stage design, and rehearsals, the Brits played cricket, their game with origins back to the sixteenth century.
Each year, the Stratford Festival and Shaw Festival challenge one another to a cricket match in order to prove, in a sportsmanlike way, which is the better festival. The friendly rivalry between the two theatrical companies began in the 1970s. The match is always on a Monday, a dark day at both festivals, which means actors and staff have one day to show off their cricket competency. The annual match alternates between Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The Stratford Team is known as Blakes’ Blokes in honour of its founder, actor Mervyn (Butch) Blake, who was at the Stratford Festival for over forty seasons.
The Stratford-Shaw match is a day of champagne and celebration, revelry, and rivalry. One story describes how, in 2015, Bill Malmo, a Stratford Festival veteran, opened a bottle of bubbly with a sabre and then went on to open a second with a cricket bat. Other antics include the Shaw Festival players arriving in Stratford dressed in theatre production costumes.
In cricket there are specific rules regarding intervals taken during a match. In Stratford and Niagara-on-the Lake, when teatime is announced, lunch is served. There is also a dinner after the match. If you find yourself in Lower Queen’s Park on cricket day, you can partake in the food and drink. If you wear all white, you will fit right in.
SEASON:
Late Summer or Fall
LOCATION:
Lower Queen’s Park, Stratford, every other year
WEBSITE:
n/a
HIGHLIGHT:
A cricket competition between Stratford and Shaw Festivals
SEASON:
Spring, Summer, Fall
LOCATION:
Corner of Downie and Ontario streets
WEBSITE:
HIGHLIGHT:
Downtown Stratford at street level with a free horse-drawn carriage tour
FREE CARRIAGE RIDES
Every Saturday, from about the beginning of June to the end of September, more than 300 stores and businesses in Downtown Stratford provide free horse-drawn carriage rides through the city’s Victorian-era core. Rides depart every half hour and are on a first-come, first-serve basis from noon to the last run at 3:30 p.m. All you have to do is present yourself at the corner of Downie and Ontario streets, on the north side of the intersection, in front of the Freeland Fountain
