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Children's Water Education Council
c/o Waterloo Region Museum 10 Huron Rd.,
Kitchener, ON N2P 2R7
Phone: (519)748-1914
Fax: (519)748-0009
Email: [email protected]

Festivals

Ontario Festivals | How to Start a Water Festival

How to Start a Water Festival

The handbook "How to start a Water Festival" is a user friendly manual designed to give direction for organizing your own water festival. This is a result of the many inquiries to the Children's Water Education Council about water festival. The cost for printing and shipping the Handbook is $20.

The initial festival which started in 1994, in Milton, Ontario moved to the Kitchener location in 1996 and became the Waterloo Wellington Children's Groundwater Festival. The Festival is one of the longest running, successful festival in Ontario. Through continued support from all the supporting partners, the festival has educated over 40,000. Children's Water festivals are constantly evolving and growing to meet the demands of the ever changing educational expectations. The idea is simple, educate children about the importance of our most precious resource, water. The message has expanded into other regions with Peel, York, and Durham hosting a festival annually. New festivals are arriving with interest from many communties across the province. Since the first festival over  200,000 students have been to a festival, receiving the water message.

The water festivals have been successful across the province, why is this so? Organizers believe it do to several factors;

  • The festival is designed to be fun and interactive for the students. To learn in a fun setting, the message will have a lasting effect.
  • The community at large are having more concerns about the environment, especially water. They want to be more aware about water conservation and protection for future use.
  • The Ontario curriculum encourages students to become more environmentally aware. Teachers appreciate the opportunity to have their students learn about this important topic in a fun setting, where the experts teach current techniques. The festival takes a hands-on approach which teachers and student alike benefit from.

These are some of the reasons festival are happening across the province of Ontario. This handbook has been designed to help interested groups in taking the next steps to hosting a successful festival in their community.

Please note, these ideas are suggestions only. After several years of hosting a festival, a lot has been learned, improved upon and adapted to fit the needs of each local festival. Most festival run for a period of five days, educating up to a 1000 students per day. These guidelines can be adapted to meet the needs of your local community. We wish you good luck in your efforts!

For a copy of the Handbook please contact:
Susan Reid
c/o Doon Heritage Crossroads
10 Huron Rd., Kitchener, ON
N2P 2R7
(519) 748-1914
email: [email protected]
The Children's Water Education Council gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Recreation. With $100 million in annual funding from the province's charitable gaming initiatives, the Foundation provides grants to eligible charitable and not-for-profit organizations in the arts, culture, sports, recreation, environment and social services sectors.