Dundas Cactus Festival Recognized as a Top 100 Ontario Festival

The “Top 100 Ontario Festivals” for April 2009 – March 2010 were unveiled on Saturday March 7, 2009 at Festivals & Events Ontario’s (FEO’s) annual conference at the prestigious President’s Gala in Burlington, ON and for the first time in its 34 year history, the Dundas Cactus Festival was recognized as a top 100 Festival.

The “Top 100 Ontario Festivals” program, created by FEO and sponsored by VIA Rail Canada, represents excellence for the province’s festivals and events industry, with events vying annually for inclusion in the “Top 100” . There are over three thousand annual festivals and community events staged each year in Ontario ranging from one-day street fairs to internationally renowned, multi-day celebrations.  Festivals are selected through a nomination process that includes a pre-determined set of criteria.

The Top 100 Festivals are represented in the 2009 Festivals & Events in Ontario Guide. FEO, in partnership with the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation, produces the guide, which has a distribution of 250,000 and a readership of 750,000. The publications will be available for distribution in March 2009.

In reaction to the recognition as a “Top 100 Ontario Festival”, President of the Dundas Cactus Festival Association, Steve Deighton said, “We are honoured to be included on FEO’s ‘Top 100’. This recognition celebrates the spirit and Town of Dundas, our Festival Board of Directors and volunteers for their countless hours of involvement, the people of Dundas and Greater Hamilton Area and visitors who annually come out in support of the Festival. The award is a tremendous source of civic pride and we intend to celebrate this recognition.”