Food & Wine · St. Catharines
Niagara Grape & Wine Festival
The Niagara Grape & Wine Festival has been the region's signature harvest celebration for decades — one of the oldest and largest wine festivals in Canada. Montebello Park fills with winery booths, food vendors and live music, while the Grande Parade rolls through downtown St. Catharines on the final Saturday.
Beyond the park, dozens of wineries across the Bench and Niagara-on-the-Lake run Discovery Pass tastings and pairings throughout the festival, making it as much a region-wide wine crawl as a downtown party.
Locals skip the parking headache entirely — the neighbourhoods around Montebello Park (Yates Street, the old Glenridge area) are a beautiful 10-minute walk, and it's some of the most storied real estate in the city. If you're at the parade, arrive an hour early for a curbside spot on St. Paul Street.