Guest blog by Kevin Forget
With over 10 years’ experience as Executive Producer at Breakfast Television, Canada’s #1 morning show, Kevin is no stranger to tourism, promoting the province through remote broadcasts in Parry Sound, Gravenhurst, Blue Mountain & more. He joins us to bring you all the latest to see and do in Ontario.
I’ve always watched the Wiarton Willie prediction on TV, but had never gone to see it in person. This year was my year….the amazing folks from the festival asked me to come and MC this year, and I said YES right away.
When we arrived we checked into the Wright House Bed and Breakfast. (Yep, they have a TON of snow)
To be honest…I was a little nervous about staying in a Bed and Breakfast because we’ve never stayed in one before, but it ended up being something that we really enjoyed. Not only was it beautiful home, but the service and the special details in our room really made us feel comfortable.
We then ventured into the town to do some shopping and to grab some food. The meal we had at Coco Vanilla’s was delicious, and it gave us the opportunity to meet and chat with so many locals. The people of Wiarton are some of the nicest people I’ve met. (We even had some people invite us to come to a party at their home)
We were up early on Sunday morning to head to Bluewater Park to get the celebration started. It didn’t take long for the park to be filled with thousands of locals and tourists all waiting to see and hear Willie’s prediction.
The prediction took place at 8:07 am sharp…this is where we heard that we’d be enjoying 6 more weeks of winter. Only half of the crowd cheered.
Who knows how accurate the predictions really is, but I can tell you seeing a community come together to celebrate a groundhog is something pretty special!
Make your plans for next year, and take a drive to Wiarton for the Wiarton Willie Festival. www.wiartonwilliefestival.com