It’s a local tradition that brings thousands of visitors to one of Manitoba’s fastest-growing cities, and the 2024 event features family-friendly entertainment, big-name Canadian headlining acts and, of course, corn — lots of corn.
The Morden Corn & Apple Festival, which kicks off Friday in the community near the Canada-U.S. border, is a perennial hit with visitors, even if organizers aren’t always sure why it’s so popular.
Chairperson Nathan Knight told Global Winnipeg there’s a lot to do — everything from a concert stage featuring platinum-selling rockers 54-40 and Winnipeg’s own The Watchmen to a petting zoo, games, a farmers market and more.
The real draw, however, is that delicious corn.
“People love waiting in line for their free corn and apple juice,” Knight said.
“That’s something that has perplexed me over the years, because being in rural Manitoba, you have that any day you want — but we go through about 50,000 cobs of corn throughout the course of the weekend.”
Knight said the focus on corn and apples is pretty straightforward — it’s all about celebrating the crops the Morden area has in abundance, especially at this time of year.
“The main focus of the very first Corn & Apple Festival was to promote the community through the farmers market — to feature some of the products that were grown in and around Morden,” Knight said.
“Corn, just because it’s been so readily available here, is what was featured … and the apples, it’s still summer, it’s still very much summer, but we have Labour Day coming up next weekend and then we start looking to fall.”
The festival, which runs through Sunday, is entirely free to attend, and festival-goers can even catch a shuttle bus from the Morden arena to the downtown festival site every 15-20 minutes throughout the weekend.
Full details are available on the festival’s website.