Thousands of people attended the Great Canadian ButterTart Festival and Paris Fall Market on Saturday, October 26 and Sunday, October 27, 2024.
Held at the Paris Fairgrounds, the festival included arts and crafts vendors, food trucks, baked goods and of course, butter tarts. Vendors offered everything from classic butter tarts with plain, pecan, or raisin fillings, to more adventurous butter tarts with fillings like coconut raspberry and ‘s’mores.
As in previous years, butter tart bakers competed for the best overall tarts, with first, second and third place awarded by fan vote. People could cast their votes electronically by scanning a QR code displayed at each butter tart vendor.
Abbey Johnston, from Abbey’s Sweet Treats, had won first place for her butter tarts at the 2023 fall festival. She said that she enjoys “the atmosphere and the different vendors,” at the event, and comes from Collingwood for it each year.
Lynn Deakin, owner of Gluten Free Girl, has been coming to the Paris festival since 2022. She describes it as simply as “the best,” due to “the volume, the foot traffic, and now people are getting to know me.”
“Usually, I’m the only gluten-free one here,” Deakin said. “I get repeat people who wait and come to buy the tarts. So that’s exciting.”
Festival-goers were treated to mostly sunny weather over the two days, though a brief hail storm on Saturday morning sent people running indoors and seeking shelter under vendor’s tents.
Indoors were more butter tart vendors as well as artisans selling handmade jewellery, candles, and gifts.
Organized by All Canadian Events, the festival has been held in Paris for nine years, and runs for a weekend each spring and fall. With this year’s festival falling before Halloween, children and adults were encouraged to wear costumes, and many obliged.
Photo props were also spread throughout the festival, including fall displays with hay and pumpkins and oversized skeletons. Live actors in costume also posed for photos, dressed as scarecrows, witches and other fall-themed characters.
A Halloween scavenger hunt was also offered for children 12 years and younger, with children collecting plastic spiders around the festival to trade in for Halloween treats. Sweet & Savoury Pie Company, from Waterloo, had embraced the Halloween spirit with a ‘Trick-or-Treat’ butter tart, each of which was made with one possible type of chocolate from a variety box.
