Eastern Ontario Labour Day Weekend Guide Sep 4–6, 2026

September 1, 2026

Eastern Ontario Weekend Guide
Labour Day Weekend, Sep 4–6, 2026
Fourteen markets and festivals across the Quinte, Lanark and Ottawa areas — five Saturday markets, five Labour Day agricultural fairs, a salmon run, an art tour, a dance festival, and a free cultural celebration.
🎪 14 Events 🆓 7 Free 🌾 5 Ag Fairs 🥕 5 Markets
⚠️ Heads up: Five separate agricultural fairs run this same Labour Day weekend — Perth, Stormont County (Newington), Centreville (Stone Mills), Marmora, and Port Perry. They’re all genuinely different fairs in different towns, not duplicate listings — check the dates and location on each card below before you drive.
☀️ Weekend Weather by Zone
Eastern Ontario is a big region — here’s the forecast for each cluster of festivals.
🍇 Quinte & Prince Edward County (Belleville, Trenton, Napanee, Marmora, PEC)
Fri Sep 4
25°C
☀️ 15% rain
Sat Sep 5
24°C
🌤️ 10% rain
Sun Sep 6
24°C
🌥️ 15% rain
🏛️ Ottawa & Lanark County (Perth, Carleton Place, Ottawa, Stormont)
Fri Sep 4
23°C
☀️ 10% rain
Sat Sep 5
22°C
☁️ 15-30% rain
Sun Sep 6
24°C
🌥️ 10% rain
🌊 1000 Islands (Gananoque)
Fri Sep 4
24°C
☀️ 10% rain
Sat Sep 5
22°C
🌤️ 15% rain
Sun Sep 6
24°C
☀️ 5% rain
🐟 Port Hope
Fri Sep 4
25°C
☀️ 10% rain
Sat Sep 5
24°C
🌤️ 10% rain
Sun Sep 6
23°C
☀️ 0% rain
🚜 Port Perry (Durham)
Fri Sep 4
24°C
☀️ 15% rain
Sat Sep 5
23°C
🌤️ 10% rain
Sun Sep 6
23°C
🌥️ 15% rain
💡 A genuinely dry, mild long weekend across every zone — highs in the low-to-mid 20s and rain chances mostly under 15%. Evenings cool into the low-to-mid teens, so bring a layer for anything after dark (derbies, concerts, the Serbian Festival’s evening program).
🔍 Find Your Kind of Event
Tap a filter to narrow down what’s on this weekend.
All (14) 🆓 Free 🥕 Markets 🌾 Fairs 👧 Family 🎵 Music 🎨 Arts
Showing all 14 events
🎪 This Weekend’s Markets & Festivals
🥕 MARKET 🆓 FREE ENTRY 📍 Belleville
Belleville Farmers’ Market
Saturday · 8am–5pm · Historic Market Square
Running in the same downtown square since 1816, this is one of the oldest continuously operating markets in Ontario. Saturday is the flagship day, with the widest spread of local produce, honey, baked goods and crafts — peak hours run 9am to 2pm, so get there early for the best pick.
🥕 Local produce 🍯 Honey & maple 🥖 Baked goods
🥕 MARKET 🆓 FREE ENTRY 📍 Trenton
Front Street Farmers’ Market
Saturday · 8am–1pm · 67 Front Street, on the waterway
More than two dozen vendors set up along the Trent-Severn Waterway in downtown Trenton, a few minutes’ walk from Trent Port Marina. The variety here is a step up from a typical small-town market — grass-fed beef, non-alcoholic ginger beer, wildlife photography prints, and two full craft breweries pouring on-site.
🍺 Craft beer 🎨 Handmade crafts 🌊 Waterfront setting
🥕 MARKET 🆓 FREE ENTRY 📍 Carleton Place
Carleton Place Farmers Market
Saturday · 8:30am–12:30pm · Market Square, rain or shine
Running since 1991 — one of the longer-standing markets in the Ottawa Valley. Live music and buskers give Market Square a genuine community-event feel, and popular items like the sourdough stall routinely sell out before noon, so go early if you’re chasing something specific.
🍞 Fresh sourdough 🎵 Live music 🅿️ Free on-site parking
🥕 MARKET 🆓 FREE ENTRY 📍 Napanee
Lennox & Addington Chamber Market
Saturday · 9am–1pm · Market Square, Old Town Hall
A newer, chamber-run market in its second full season, tucked right behind Napanee’s Old Town Hall. The vendor lineup rotates week to week, leaning toward local small businesses alongside the produce stands — check the Chamber’s weekly “who’s at market” list if you’re chasing a specific stall.
🚚 Food trucks 🍯 Honey & maple 🎁 Home décor
🎨 CRAFT MARKET 🆓 FREE ENTRY 📍 Gananoque
Gananoque Craft Market
Saturday · 10am–4pm · Town Hall Park, near the waterfront
Handmade goods, art prints, jewellery and home décor in Town Hall Park, a short walk from Gananoque’s St. Lawrence waterfront. It’s the town-run companion to a separate Thursday produce market, so this one leans fully into artisan work — a natural pairing with a Thousand Islands boat tour or waterfront walk.
💍 Jewellery 🏺 Pottery 🎵 Live music
🐟 NATURE 👧 FAMILY FRIENDLY 📍 Port Hope
Port Hope Salmon Festival 2026
Aug 15 – Oct 12 · This weekend: early season · Fish Ladder open 8am–11pm
Thousands of Chinook and Coho salmon leap the Ganaraska River fish ladder each fall — one of Ontario’s most accessible wildlife spectacles. This Labour Day weekend falls in the early season, so expect fewer fish and quieter viewing than the late-September peak, but it’s a genuinely worthwhile stop if you’re already in the Port Hope area on your way east or west.
💡 Peak migration is late September through early October — this weekend is a good low-crowd preview, not the main event.
🌾 AG FAIR 👧 FAMILY FRIENDLY 179th year 📍 Perth
Perth Fair 2026
Sep 3–6 · Sat is the busiest day (Demolition Derby)
A genuine 179-year-old heritage fair in one of Eastern Ontario’s most walkable stone-heritage towns — livestock and horse shows, a demolition derby, tractor and truck pulls, lawn mower races, and dozens of homecraft categories under this year’s “Farm To Fork” theme.
This Weekend at Perth Fair
📅 Fri Sep 4: Gates 9am · midway 11am–11pm · bracelet pricing
📅 Sat Sep 5: Busiest day — Demolition Derby
📅 Sun Sep 6: Closing day, midway to 4pm
🐾 No dogs/pets on the fairgrounds (service dogs excepted) • $15 adult gate, $40 weekend pass
🌾 AG FAIR 👧 FAMILY FRIENDLY 159th year 📍 Newington
Stormont County Fair
Sep 4–7 · “Small Towns, Deep Roots” • runs through Labour Day itself
One of Eastern Ontario’s oldest agricultural traditions, filling Newington since 1867. Friday night’s Demolition Derby at the Grandstand is the marquee draw, Saturday brings the parade and a full day of livestock shows and live music, and the fair runs a genuinely packed four days through Monday’s beef and sheep shows.
This Weekend at Stormont
📅 Fri Sep 4: 7pm Demolition Derby at the Grandstand
📅 Sat Sep 5: 11:30am Parade, live music, family dance party
📅 Sun Sep 6: Horse show, NorthFire Circus, County Lads live 8pm
🎟️ Weekend Pass $60 covers all 4 days plus midway — often the better deal
🌾 AG FAIR 👧 KIDS FREE 171st year 📍 Stone Mills
Centreville Fair 2026
Sep 4–5 only · Fri 4pm–close, Sat 8am–close
A 171-year-old Frontenac County tradition — this is the shortest of the weekend’s five fairs, just Friday evening and Saturday, so it’s easy to combine with a Saturday morning market run. Livestock and horse shows, homecraft and baking exhibits, and an affordable $10 gate with kids 12 and under free.
💡 Wraps up Saturday — this is a two-day fair only, unlike the others running into Sunday/Monday.
🎨 ARTS 🆓 FREE 📍 Prince Edward County
Rednersville Road Art Tour 2026
Sep 5–7 · 10am–5pm daily · 9 stops, ~20 artists
A free, self-guided studio crawl along the Bay of Quinte shoreline — twenty artists open their own homes and studios instead of a formal gallery, so you’re talking with the people who actually made the pottery, paintings and mosaics on display. No set order; join the route anywhere and go at your own pace.
💡 Download the tour brochure first — with 9 stops along one road, having a map beats navigating stop-to-stop on the fly.
🌾 AG FAIR 👧 FAMILY FRIENDLY 📍 Port Perry
Port Perry Fair 2026
Sep 5–7 · Truck Pull Sat, Derby Sun, Rodeo Mon
On the shores of Lake Scugog, about an hour northeast of Toronto — a big Durham Region fair with a stacked grandstand lineup: Saturday’s Truck & Tractor Pull, Sunday’s Demolition Derby, and Monday’s Extreme Rodeo, plus daily FMX motocross and a stunt-dog Canine Circus running between them.
This Weekend at Port Perry Fair
📅 Sat Sep 5: 5:30pm Truck & Tractor Pull
📅 Sun Sep 6: 5:30pm Demolition Derby
📅 Mon Sep 7: 11:45am Extreme Rodeo
🎺 MUSIC & DANCE 👧 KIDS 12 & UNDER FREE 📍 Ottawa
Latin Sparks Festival 2026
Sat Sep 5 only · 1pm–11pm · LeBreton Flats Park
Billed as Canada’s largest Latin dance party — a live 10-piece salsa band, free dance lessons for every level, a $1,000 dance battle, and a new 100+ performer Carnaval parade winding through LeBreton Flats. Total beginners genuinely end up dancing alongside experienced regulars thanks to the all-day free lessons.
🅿️ On-site parking is very limited — take the O-Train to Pimisi Station or plan for paid lots at the Canadian War Museum.
🌾 AG FAIR 👧 FAMILY FRIENDLY Since 1890 📍 Marmora
Marmora Fair 2026
Sep 5–6 · Sat 10am gates · two-day format this year
Halfway between Toronto and Ottawa on Highway 7, a Hastings County fair running since 1890. Horse draws and a demolition derby anchor the weekend, alongside homecraft, livestock and a Cope Amusements midway — an easy detour if you’re already road-tripping the Perth/Ottawa or Belleville corridor.
💡 2026 gate pricing wasn’t posted at time of writing — pay at the gate, check the Society’s Facebook closer to the date.
🎶 CULTURE 🆓 FREE 19th year 📍 Ottawa
Ottawa Serbian Festival 2026
Sep 5–7 · Noon–11pm (Mon to 10pm) · St. Stefan Church
Nineteen years running on the grounds of St. Stefan Serbian Orthodox Church in Nepean — free admission, free parking, live folklore dancing, sport tournaments, and Serbian BBQ (ćevapčići, raznjići, cabbage rolls) that draws visitors well beyond the local community. Kids get hands-on Cyrillic calligraphy and costume-colouring stations, not just a standard play zone.
🅿️ Free lot at 106 Colonnade Road if street parking on Prince of Wales Drive fills up.
🗓️ Day-by-Day Planner
Not sure what day to do what? Here’s a quick cheat sheet.
☀️ Friday, September 4 Sunny, 23–25°C · rain chance under 15% everywhere
🌾 Perth Fair: Gates 9am, midway 11am–11pm, bracelet pricing all day.
🚗 Stormont County Fair: Gates 2–8pm — save your energy for the 7pm Demolition Derby.
🌾 Centreville Fair: Gates open 4pm — the only day besides Saturday you can catch this one.
🐟 Port Hope Salmon Festival: Fish Ladder open 8am–11pm, early season — quiet and photogenic.
☁️ Saturday, September 5 22–24°C · the busiest day — everything is open
🥕 Five markets, one morning: Belleville, Trenton, Carleton Place, Napanee and Gananoque all run Saturday only — pick one cluster (see Zones above) rather than chasing all five.
🌾 Perth Fair Demolition Derby, Stormont’s Parade, and Centreville’s full day all land on Saturday — expect crowds at all three.
🎨 Rednersville Road Art Tour opens for its first of three identical days — a good low-key evening wind-down after a busy market morning in the Quinte area.
💃 Latin Sparks Festival in Ottawa runs 1–11pm — its only day, so if this is the one you want, today’s it.
🎶 Ottawa Serbian Festival opens at noon, running to 11pm — easy to pair with Latin Sparks if you’re already in Ottawa.
🚜 Marmora Fair opens 10am and Port Perry Fair‘s Truck & Tractor Pull runs 5:30pm — two more Saturday-only headliners in opposite directions.
🌤️ Sunday, September 6 23–24°C · quieter — Centreville and the Saturday-only markets are done
🌾 Perth Fair closes today (midway to 4pm) and Stormont County Fair continues with the horse show and NorthFire Circus.
🐄 Marmora Fair‘s second and closing day, with live music into the afternoon.
💥 Port Perry Fair’s Demolition Derby runs 5:30pm — the weekend’s other big derby.
🎨 Rednersville Road Art Tour and 🎶 Ottawa Serbian Festival both continue their full noon–11pm-style days.
Details, hours, and pricing may change — always confirm at each event’s official website before heading out. Weather is forecast by zone and may vary slightly within each cluster.

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