Orangeville Ribfest

Final notes from RIBFEST 2025. What a great RIBFEST weekend!  We had super weather all 3 days and our wonderful volunteer team—over 200 strong this year—kept Ribfest going smoothly, doing everything from greeting patrons, serving beer, pop and water, and, with help from the Orangeville Headwaters Minor Baseball Association and Dufferin Waste Services, cleaning tables and managing the waste & recycling stations.  The Rotary Club of Orangeville would like to extend a huge thank-you to each and every volunteer who helped us out this year.  We simply could not put on an event like Ribfest without your help.

Our rib-judging contest took place on Saturday afternoon when our seven judges sampled ribs and sauce from each of our wonderful ribbers.  The Ribfest Classic Auto Show was well attended and on Sunday, the performers on the big stage and Kidsfest brought in 7,000 happy patrons!  In fact, over the entire weekend, attendance was 24,859!  We won’t know for a few weeks what the final number will be for funds raised but, as in previous years, funds will go towards projects in the Orangeville/Dufferin community, including the new playground at Rotary Park.

Our winning ribbers this year were:

• Judges’ Choice Best Ribs – Boss Hog’s BBQ
• Judges’ Choice Best Sauce – Bubba Lou’s Bar-B-Q
• People’s Choice Award – Jack the Ribber

One last note:  after closing on Sunday, all left over pop and water was donated to the Choices Youth Shelter.

Thank-you to our many volunteers, our fabulous bands and performers, our sponsors, our ribbers and all the Ribfest vendors, and to you, the citizens of Orangeville, Dufferin County and beyond, for helping to make the 16^th annual Rotary Ribfest such a success. See you in 2026—July 17, 18 and 19—save the dates!