Located at the western end of Colpoys Bay, an inlet off Georgian Bay on the Bruce Peninsula, Wiarton is a community found in the town of South Bruce Peninsula in Bruce County. During the summer time, Wiarton attracts multitudes of Ontarians who take part in exploring the Bruce Peninsula and it is known for hosting the annual Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race. However, Wiarton would not be as well-known if it wasn’t for its most famous resident, the groundhog named Wiarton Willie who famously predicts the weather on Groundhog Day (Feb. 2) as part of the annual Wiarton Willie Festival. In this blog we will provide you with a brief history of the Wiarton Willie Festival and give you all the necessary information so that you too can take part in the excitement of the Wiarton Willie Festival in 2023.
The History Behind Wiarton Willie
Going back to 1956, a resident of Wiarton named Mac McKenzie, sent out invitations to a hundred of his closest friends so that they could break the cold winter ‘gloom’ with a fun party. As luck would have it, one of the invitations was sent to a Toronto Star reporter who quickly managed to travel there so that he could take part in the Groundhog Day event. Unfortunately, none of the residents of Wiarton knew about the planned event, but told the reporter to look for McKenzie and his friends at the Arlington Hotel, a local bar. The reporter, who joined McKenzie and his friends in the celebration, needed some form of proof of the Groundhog Day event, so McKenzie had a brilliant idea: he took his wife’s fur hat, dug a burrow in the snow, and placing the hat in the burrow, pronounced a prognostication!
On February 3, 1956, an article was run in the Toronto Star with a photo of Mac and the fur hat in the snow. The following year, 50 people showed up for the festival, and Mac seized the opportunity to make an annual festival grow in numbers and popularity till our present day.
The groundhog known as Wiarton Willie became a staple part of the festival starting in the 1980s, as Wiarton prognostication in the early years was attributed to three mythical groundhogs, Grundoon, Muldoon and Sand Dune. Willie’s followers attribute his prediction powers to Wiarton being situated in the 45th parallel, which is precisely half way between the Equator and the North Pole. In fact, Wiarton Willie is so loved for his prognostications that local residents claim his accuracy to predict the weather to be at 90%.
Wiarton Willie Festival Activities
Residents of Bruce County know that the annual Wiarton Willie Festival is great fun and that is why over 10,000 people attend the event each year. As is traditionally the case, the event begins in the morning of February 2nd where people are anxious to see if Wiarton Willie will see his shadow, indicating 6 more weeks of winter, or if there is no shadow, predicting an early spring. Other popular events as party of the Wiarton Willie Festival usually include the following:
- Dances.
- Parades.
- An ice hockey tournament.
- Sleigh rides.
- Curling bonspiels.
- Pancake breakfasts.
- A Fish Fry.
- Darts and snooker tournaments.
- A Monte Carlo Night.
The 2023 Wiarton Willie Festival will include the following events:
Prediction Morning: Thursday February 2, 2023. Fireworks at 7am in Bluewater Park.
Willie’s Prediction will be held at 8:07am at the Wiarton Arena Parking Lot.
Free breakfast sandwiches will be available.
Additionally, the Town of South Bruce Peninsula will be hosting a free community festival on Saturday Feb 4, 2023 from 9/10am to 4pm in Bluewater Park Festival.
Events include but are not limited to:
- Trackless train.
- Axe throwing trailer.
- Game Asylum video gaming trailer.
- Human foosball arena.
- Full court press basketball.
- Boom blasters.
Happy Wiarton Willie Festival from our team of Rob & Shauna + Handyman Joe!
