Oakville ribfest underway

The first day of summer is officially Saturday. But the summer festivals have already begun and Oakville’s largest of the season is now underway at Sheridan College.

It is the largest festival in Oakville this summer and it is the Oakville Family Ribfest here on the campus of Sheridan College.

There’s all kinds of things going on here. Ribs, of course. We have 9 different ribbers from the deep south, southern Ontario mostly. And they’ve got some incredible wares out here.

Apart from that there’s a lot of other stuff going on too. There’s a midway. There’s live music. There’s tours going on here too. Guided tours of the internationally famous animation department here at Sheridan College.

18 different artisans booths, as well as alumni here from Sheridan College and their art work.

This will run through the weekend and it’s all for a good cause. It’s sponsored by Sheridan College and admission is free.

Trish Peden, Ribfest Chair: “We started this 4 years ago, it took us a year to plan the first one. We thought it was a good idea for the community. And the Rotary Club of Oakville-Trafalgar got together and just decided to start this ribfest because the community needed something fun and large and bring the community together that’s going to aid the community and all the needs that we have so that’s what we did.”

“Every year we get together as a group. The community service has a whole list of needs. And it changes every year from Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the hospital, Sheridan College itself to the schools that will send in a request for an individual child that needs help or the food banks or what have you. But every year we get together as a group and we look at the needs and we weigh the needs and that’s where they go. And it does change yearly.”

“There’s 19 food vendors aside from the 9 ribbers. There’s everything from vegetarian and everything the heart could desire as well as crafters galore. There’s artisans from Sheridan showing their wares. It you want to get a temporary tattoo, you can do that. If you want to buy some pottery, you can do that. So it’s very diverse and there all kinds of things.”

“Tonight it’s over at 11. Saturday it’s 11 to 11 and Sunday it runs from 7 until 7.”