Our History
Sensational Elora – Festival of the Senses is the brain child of an amazing woman: Rhoda Lipton. Sensational Elora began as a 2 week-long fall Festival. In early 2012, Rhoda asked Kirk McElwain to assume the role of Chair. The financial situation dictated that the physical office be closed, staff terminated and a majority of the board resigned. Unfortunately, we lost Rhoda in June of 2012.
Kirk & his wife Julie moved the office to their home, and started the rebuilding process. The most popular events from previous years were retained but scheduled throughout the year. New events, such as Jazz at Elora Centre for the Arts were added, the Board was rebuilt, new sponsors were added and the main focus of the Festival became fund-raising to combat food insecurity in Centre Wellington.
In 2017, with generous sponsor support, Sensational Elora purchased the “Twilight Zoo” from artist Tim Murton and assumed the responsibility of storage, repair and the annual installation of more than 100 wire sculpture “monsters”. A Monster Month committee was formed with membership of the many community partners who scheduled events during Monster Month and a website was created. Today, Sensational Elora has added the Twilight Zoo, The Awakening , and Monster March as major local and visitor attractions during Monster Month, along with Pumpkin Day, Empty Bowls Project, Sensational Soup Off, Fabulous Fergus Pub Night, Film on a Plate and Sensational Sounds throughout the year.
The events provide the opportunity for residents and visitors to experience and enjoy the charm and natural beauty of Elora and the surrounding area while supporting Sensational Elora’s mission of combatting food insecurity in our community. To the end of 2024, we are very proud that we have raised over $185,000.
Our Mission:
Events To Entice The Senses
We mobilize awareness about food insecurity by creating fun and welcoming events that entertain and inspire.
Our annual award-winning Festival organizes events throughout the year featuring the renowned music, art, drama, film, food, scenery and architecture of historic Elora, culminating in our core festival events running throughout Thanksgiving weekend, including our Empty Bowls project, Pumpkin Day, and the Sensational Soup-off, raising money and awareness for the fight against poverty and hunger throughout Centre Wellington.
We strive to work with a wide variety of community partners to create fabulous events that showcase what Centre Wellington area has to offer. All our programming is designed to entice all of the senses. To accomplish that our events incorporate food and drink, provided by local restaurants, caterers, growers and retailers.
