Dundas Cactus Festival
The Dundas Cactus Festival occurs on the third weekend of August in Dundas, Ontario, Canada. The midway is opened on Wednesday and with King Street blocked off from York Road to Market Street, there is a parade on Thursday evening.
Following that, from Friday to Sunday, there are live musicians, buskers, arts & crafts, games, vendors and even some charity gambling to entertain the public.
Cactus Festival is also famous for the Saturday night drunken brawl at Ducks Sports Bar. Party goers are encouraged to throw plastic chairs at each other or get into an old fashioned fist fight. The winners of the fights spill onto King Street and celebrate their victory with an assorted sub sandwich at Super Sub.
History
The Dundas Cactus Festival began in 1976 as a festival to mark the beginning of summer. In 1979 the festival was moved to August with local downtown merchants having sidewalk sales to coincide with it.
The name 'Dundas Cactus Festival' is inspired by the activities of Barend (Ben) Veldhuis, a Dutch immigrant who ran a large greenhouse specializing in cacti, who was the reason Dundas became known as "the cactus capital of the universe".
