Enjoy Oakville Along With the Festival

Travel Information for Visitors to the Fall Celtic Festival

The Town of Oakville—where the Fall Celtic Festival takes place—is a popular cultural and recreational destination in itself, with a thriving waterfront, strong heritage roots, and rapidly expanding facilities for year‑round sports and leisure activities. Many visitors discover Oakville for the first time through the Festival—then soon come to realize how much else the Town has to offer.

Quick Oakville Snapshot: Oakville (population 243,107) is situated on the shore of Lake Ontario, roughly halfway between two of Ontario’s major cities, Toronto and Hamilton (30-38 km/19-23 miles either way), and about an hour's drive from the U.S. border crossings at Lewiston, Niagara Falls, or Buffalo, New York. The Town's character is shaped by the beauty of its natural surroundings and its early history as a commercial and shipbuilding port. Present-day visitors can enjoy its three active harbours, two beaches, over 200 km/124 miles of recreational trails for hikers and cyclists, and more than 200 parks and public gardens—31 of which have water frontage with stunning lakeside views. Well-preserved heritage homes, an antique lighthouse, and other historic landmarks recall the Town's past, while a growing commercial sector brings modern energy, a mix of major corporations and small independent businesses, boutique shopping, and a sophisticated food scene. Local favourites include patio dining and Hexagon, a Michelin-starred restaurant serving contemporary cuisine. A second Oakville restaurant, 7 Enoteca, won a 2025 Michelin Bib Gourmand Award for its great Italian food at reasonable prices. As a travel destination for stopovers, day trips, and vacations, Oakville delivers small-town charm with big-city amenities.

Activities: Not surprisingly given its nautical past, Oakville offers a wide range of water activities, including boating, canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding, and charter fishing. Indoor and outdoor playgrounds abound, along with excellent facilities for all types of sports--including Oakville's amateur soccer club and rugby club, both the largest of their kind in North America. 

Arts & Culture: The Town's varied and vibrant arts scene includes the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, a symphony orchestra, museums, galleries, and a Culture Days Festival held annually around the same time as the Fall Celtic Festival--this year from September 18 to October 4, 2026. During Culture Days, local creators stage free exhibitions, workshops, and performances at locations all over town. In the 2025 Culture Days Festival, Oakville was ranked as the number one overall participating community in Canada for the fourth year in a row.

Books, Movies, TV, Social Media: Historically, Oakville was a key stop on the Underground Railroad, offering a first safe landing and entry point into Canada for Black Americans escaping slavery. Multi-award-winning Canadian author Lawrence Hill draws directly on this aspect of Oakville’s history and features some of its actual locations in his novel Any Known Blood. Oakville is also an increasingly popular shooting location for major motion pictures and television shows, including The Santa Clause starring Tim Allen (shot in Downtown Oakville); Dream House starring Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz, and Daniel Craig (shot in Gairloch Gardens); and The Handmaid’s Tale starring Elisabeth Moss (shot in Coronation Park and other Oakville locations). In a 2025 article, Narcity Media lead travel writer Madeline Forsyth noted that readers on Narcity Canada's Facebook page named Oakville as one of the best small towns to live in Canada. (Link to Forsyth's article: https://bit.ly/3FZtfAY.)

Visit Oakville: To obtain a 2026/2027 Visitor Guide and more information on Oakville’s attractions and accommodation options, click on the following link to the Visit Oakville website: https://visitoakville.com.

We look forward to welcoming visitors from Canada, the United States, and beyond to the Festival—and to everything else the Town of Oakville has to offer while you’re here. May your time here be filled with good music, good dancing, good company, and discoveries both expected and unexpected.