EcoFest ,Sat May 23rd 2026, 10am, Westport Ontario.
@the Cove Inn.
The 4th Annual Celebration: Regenerate · Reciprocate · Inspire
EcoFest returns to Westport with new energy and partnerships, to celebrate and advocate for the natural world, honor all living beings, and showcase those who call us toward sustainability, reciprocity, regeneration, and connection.
The Cove Inn: A hub for music and community in Westport, home to EcoFest 2026. Together, we’ll bring events to the Cove’s indoor and surrounding outdoor spaces.
Makers and Innovators, Stewards and Trusts
Come and see the wonderful vendors and presenters with unique products and ideas to take home. Visit and chat with the people who volunteer to safeguard our ecosystems health.
Performances
10 am Next Step Cloggers
11:30-12:45, 2-2:45
Nepean Panharmonic Steel Band
Noon; Parlor, Darien Smith, Poet
1pm: Parlor The Shenanigans Poet/musician
12-2pm Patio Rivermen- Rob Rainer, Mary Lou Caroll, Dave Ramsen
5-9pm The Cove Inn presents: River City Junction
Speakers
10:00 1000 Island Master Gardeners:Elsabe Falkson: The Elephant in the Room: How to deal with uninvited invasive species
11:00 Nate Morris: Deploying Biochar for Carbon-neutral Housing and Wastewater Treatment.
12:00 Climate Concierge Program: Local Resources for Your Home
1:00 Mike Nickerson, More Fun, Less Stuff,
2:00 Mireille LaPointe, Indigenous Community Helper:
Knowledge Sharing
Around Town
Net Zero Homes
Green building tour- Kacee Kudrinko
Voyageur Canoes
Tour the Westport Pocket Forest, Cove
A star-gazing pad for Dark Sky viewing at the Cove.
Display of Electric Vehicles
Dark Skies Initiative: With the Perth-to-Chaffey’s Locks region moving toward Dark Sky Preserve designation, EcoFest joins in celebrating this commitment to protecting the night for all living beings.
May 21; kicking off EcoFest Westport
7pm Westport United Church
Together, we’ll ally with creativity and ideas to celebrate the natural world and those who inspire us to steward it.
sponsors
We are very grateful to our sponsors for covering the entire bill so this event can be enjoyed for free and artists and speakers can be paid.
Ken Rose
Frontenac Arch Biosphere Network
Madden & Company Trees
Paul McKay
our supporters
Westport Blooms
Wendy's Market Garden,
Furnace Falls Coffee Co,
Newboro Soap
Westport United Church
Winter Eco Cafe series
Thursdays January-March 2026 3:30-6:30pm
the Cove Inn
Jan 15
• Introducing Plant Baby Plant — a Robin Wall Kimmerer & team initiative.
Moving forward with Westport Pocket Forests.
• Sign up for the Earth Doll workshop and Climate Cafés @
• Call for donations: single mitts and clothing for the Clothing Exchange Feb 12 and wool items to be repurposed into blankets Feb 19
Jan 22
• Climate Café with Claire Beach of Wild Edge Nature Immersion; A gentle space in a changing world to listen, share, and connect. Theme: climate and change. Pre-register, limited spaces.
Jan 29
with Shannon Lem from the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Network
• Focus: planning for local projects in the Frontenac Arch Biosphere, eg tree inventory, pocket forests, removing invasives, EcoFest 2026
Feb 5
• Make a Mother Earth Doll. Ojibwe Dollmaker from Northern Ontario, Rose Moses, will lead a workshop to make a Mother Earth Doll using only recycled materials. Pre-register, limited spaces.
Feb 12
• Clothing exchange, mitt match up
• Reminder: wool items for blanket-making next week
Feb 19
• Stitching & upcycling session with woolen items
• Invitation to stay after dinner for community gathering next week
Feb 26
• Topic: Gardening communally, saving seeds, seed exchange
• Dinner social afterwards — stay and connect together
March 5
• Climate Café with Claire Beach of Wild Edge Nature Immersion; A gentle space in a changing world to listen, share, and connect. Theme: Active Hope
March 12
• Create a collaborative Sculptural Art piece with Delvalle with repurposed materials to be installed in Westport Pocket Forest; Cove site
lively conversations on ecological themes
meet new friends in your community after work
educational and informative topics and speakers
in the lovely atmosphere at the Cove where you can enjoy great food and music.
Orange Shirt Day
Date: Tuesday September 30th, 2025 1-3pm
Location: Lockwood Park, Westport.
Orange Shirt Day was inspired by Phyllis Webstad, a residential school survivor, whose new orange shirt was taken away on her first day of residential school. This story has become a powerful symbol of the experience of many Indigenous children. Residential schools, run by Government and Churches, intended to break communities by taking children from their homes and instilling colonial beliefs whilst forbidding the children to speak their language or continue their cultural practices. The last school closed in the 1990's, and today, children's graves are being discovered in their grounds.
Westport Pocket Forests
Saturday, October 18th 2025 10am until finished. The Cove parking lot.
plant native shrubs, forbs and grasses for biodiversity, shoreline health, shade and soil improvement
learn about pocket forests
plan more pocket forests
move your body and meet new people.
Better Together Circle and the Frontenac Arch Biosphere presented
For the Love of Trees
author Diana Beresford-Kroeger and her new book "Our Green Heart"
Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist, biochemist, biologist and poet of the global forest. She delivers a challenge to us all to dig deeper into the lives of trees and forests and into the ways they will save us from climate breakdown—and then do our part to plant and protect them.
This event was filled to capacity and the audience was captivated by her message and her insights.
Westport United Church was the perfect setting for the presentation being both beautiful and acoustic.
We are thrilled to begin developing networks and partnerships in this beautiful landscape. Do you like what we are doing, then perhaps you want to help in some way.
Our heartfelt thanks for the generous support of the Young Petty Stones and the Cove Inn family, Westport,
and to the community who came out to join the warm summer vibes and who supported the Better Together Circle in what we do. Young Petty Stones perform again June 21st and July 19th and both concerts some of the proceeds will go towards our work at Better Together Circle.
EcoFest 2025
May 24, 2025
10am - 3pm @ WTC Community Arena
Address: 31 Spring St. Westport Ont
Speakers in the Arena
10 Robert Dick, Astronomer and Dark Sky advocate. Shoreline lighting.
11 Mireille LaPointe, Grandmother, Community Helper. 2-Eyed Seeing.
Noon Britt and Alister; Dehydrating Your Harvest.
1pm EVCO; Mike Banks; Electric Vehicles 101 and 10 common myths busted.
2pm Claire Beach. Wild Edge Nature. The Power of Eco Therapy: Easing Stress Naturally
Performers at the Bandshell
Noon Darien Smith. Poet. Original works.
1pm Rideau Canal Cloggers. Amazing percussive feet!
2pm Rob Rainer and Mary Lou Carroll. Folk, bluegrass, light classic rock, jazz, and bossa nova tunes.
Voyageur canoes
Launch at the ramp by the Cove on the hour.
Walking tour
Through the Village of Westport. See our business community's green initiatives and sample their delights.
Our sponsors
We gratefully acknowledge our sponsors.
The Better Together Circle acknowledges that we are on the land that has been inhabited by Indigenous Peoples from the beginning. As settlers, we're grateful for the opportunity to meet, work and play here, and we thank all the generations of people stretching back in time who have taken care of this land. In particular, we gratefully acknowledge the Algonquin (Omàmìwininìwag) Anishnaabeg whose unceded territory this is. BTC is dedicated to taking action towards reconciliation and a harmonious relationship with the land.
"What we do to the land, we do to ourselves." Chief Seattle.
