After an eight-year hiatus, the Great Canadian Cheese Festival is back and ready to support the Canadian dairy industry on May 24-25, 2025, at the historic Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario. Recognised as the country’s largest celebration of cheese, the festival promises to be a spectacular event for cheese aficionados and supporters of local industry alike.
Patricia McDermott, owner of Agrarian Market in Prince Edward County and the executive director of the festival, emphasises the importance of buying Canadian cheese. “When you buy Canadian cheese, you invest in our communities,” she says. “This support means everything. I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of community support as a small business owner in Canada. Buying Canadian cheese encourages innovation, supports farm families, and keeps our dairy sector strong.”
The festival will host over 100 Canadian dairy producers and artisans from across the nation, providing attendees with numerous opportunities to enjoy and learn about Canadian-made cheeses. Festival-goers can partake in tutored cheese tastings with beverage pairings, children’s cheese-making activities, professional development seminars, and enjoy live entertainment. Visitors will also have the chance to tour Fort Henry and explore its rich history.
Shep Ysselstein, cheesemaker and co-owner of Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese in Woodstock, Ontario, is enthusiastic about the event. “You are supporting something from here, rather than far away,” he states. “Right now, people need to be supporting Canadians because we might end up going through more difficult times in the future, and everyone’s individual choices to choose Canadian can really boost the market as a whole.”
The Canadian dairy industry is a major contributor to the national economy, adding $19.9 billion to the GDP and supporting around 221,000 full-time positions as of 2015. However, the industry faces increasing pressures from international trade agreements, which have opened the Canadian cheese and dairy markets to more competition. Agreements like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement pose significant challenges to the industry, potentially leading to a combined annual loss of $300 million and projecting losses of up to $2 billion.
“Canadian dairy farmers are facing more challenges now than ever,” McDermott notes. “It brings issues to the surface. It makes you care about the future of our children and how our actions today will shape their tomorrow. The Great Canadian Cheese Festival is more than delicious cheese; it’s a conversation about consumer choice shaping the strength of the Canadian dairy industry.”
In 2024, McDermott became the owner of the Great Canadian Cheese Festival and successfully hosted the Ontario Cheese Fest in Prince Edward County. She anticipates thousands of attendees for the festival’s grand return this year.
The Great Canadian Cheese Festival highlights the dedication of Canadian dairy producers to innovation and high-quality products. It addresses pressing questions for consumers, including how to support Canadian businesses and the impact of their choices on the national economy.
“We make great cheeses here in Canada,” Ysselstein adds. “There might be a perception that great cheeses come from Europe, but I think that can be quickly shown to not necessarily be true when people try the stuff we make here.”
For more information about the Great Canadian Cheese Festival, visit https://cheesefest.ca/.
