Thousands turn out for Elora’s Longest BBQ

August 7, 2024 @ 11:00 amNews

Visitors lined up to sample raw oysters at Elora’s Longest BBQ. Celebrity chef Michael Smith, right (in red T-shirt), oversees operations. Photos by Joanne Shuttleworth
A really big pot - There was a variety of food samples offered for sale at the Food Day Canada event in Elora on July 30, where visitors purchased tickets for sample-sized portions of Canadian food prepared by local chefs. Here, chefs from the Elora Mill prepare a huge amount of paella. Photos by Joanne Shuttleworth
Resa Lent, fourth from right, prepared several carrot cakes for Elora’s Longest BBQ, which helped kick off Food Day Canada. She is joined by dignitaries for the cake cutting.
Students - Students from Conestoga College’s hospitality and culinary arts program prepared a peach and tomato salad and barbecued pork tenderloin as their contribution to Food Day Canada.
Beer - Food Day Canada also celebrated Canadian beer at the event in Elora. Here visitors flock to the beer tent to enjoy a cold brew in the shade.
Unwrapped - The former Commercial Hotel on Mill Street West in Elora, that has been shrouded in scaffolding for months during restoration, is unwrapped in time for Food Day Canada. Thousands of people turned out for the event.

ELORA – Thousands of people showed up at the July 30 event, which was held off for about an hour as rain deluged the village. And then the sun came out. Centre Wellington Mayor Shawn Watters called it the “Anita Stewart effect.” Stewart, who lived in Elora, started the World’s Longest Barbecue initiative in response to the mad cow disease scare in 2003. It has morphed into Food Day Canada, an annual, national celebration of Canadian cuisine. Stewart died in 2020.