The Dundas Cactus Festival occurs on the third weekend of August in

Dundas Dundas may refer to: Places Australia * Dundas, New South Wales * Dundas, Queensland, a locality in the Somerset Region * Dundas, Tasmania * Dundas, Western Australia * Fort Dundas, a settlement in the Northern Territory 1824–1828 * Shire of ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The midway is opened on Wednesday and with King Street blocked off from York Road to Market Street, there is a

parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

on Thursday evening. Following that, from Friday to Sunday, there are live musicians,

buskers Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...

, arts & crafts, games, vendors and even some

charity gambling Charity gambling is a "form of incentivized giving" where a charity (or a group of charities), rather than a municipality or private casino, oversees gambling activities such as bingo, roulette, lottery, and slot machines and uses the proceeds t ...

to entertain the public.

History

The Dundas Cactus Festival began in 1976 as a festival to mark the beginning of summer. In 1979 the festival was moved to August with local downtown merchants having sidewalk sales to coincide with it. The name 'Dundas Cactus Festival' is inspired by the activities of Barend (Ben) Veldhuis, a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

immigrant who ran a large greenhouse specializing in cacti, who was the reason Dundas became known as "the cactus capital of the universe".

External links

Dundas Cactus Festival official website

Busking venues Summer festivals Recurring events established in 1976 Festivals in Hamilton, Ontario Festivals established in 1976 Dundas, Ontario {{Canada-festival-stub