2024 Festival dates
May 28th and May 29th, 2024.

We're looking forward to being live and in-person once again! Registration opens Monday, January 15th @ noon.

Want to start your #WaterWednesday now?

Check out the resources from the 2023 Water Wednesday season Here and Wonders of Water archives live here! Locally focused and fun water education for your class.

Notes from Last Year:

A Splashing Success!

2023 marked the 21st Anniversary of the Peterborough Children’s Water Festival (PCWF) and our triumphant return to a LIVE festival at the Peterborough Riverview Park and Zoo on May 30th and 31st.

Over 1300 students in grades 2 to 5 from 24 local schools attended the festival, chaperoned by 311 teachers and parents. In 2002, the PCWF took root and to date 30,388 elementary students and 6,684 teachers and parent helpers have attended the Peterborough Children’s Water Festival to celebrate water and their relationship with it.

Volunteers from our partner organizations, community, and local high schools are essential to the success of the PCWF. Each year volunteers dedicate their time, energy and skills to the PCWF and to the water related messages that we share. In 2019 the festival continued to welcome many volunteers returning to the Festival ready to share water messages they once experienced at the PCWF as young students. This year we also welcomed volunteers from 11 community organizations and five local high schools. Overall, 120 high school students worked at 36 activity centres to deliver water related messages, and over 50 community volunteers helped to ensure things ran smoothly – that’s more than 1500 hours of volunteer time over two days!

Thank you Nogojiwanong for your support of Water Education!

"The Water Festival was an amazing day of learning all about water and the importance of conservation. I’ve been attending for years now and it’s always a great day filled with great hands on learning opportunities for the students!"
- JP Chénier, Teacher

"In addition to the practical knowledge that students obtained from presentations, I believe the variety of speakers provided the opportunity for students to hear from others who have a passion for water.  These experts presented many different aspects of the importance of water. This is valuable because students don't always get to hear from people who are truly passionate about a cause; this can be the spark to ignite their own passions, and if not a career with water, they see modelled how people make careers of passions."
- Tanya Hunter, Roseneath Public School

About Us

The Peterborough Children's Water Festival (PCWF) is a community event for children in Grade 2 to 5. The PCWF provides students with the opportunity to discover the importance and diversity of water.

The PCWF works in partnership with educators, water quality and quantity specialists, community volunteers, conservation groups, industry and government to create a festival full of activities that are educational and fun for children in grades 2 to 5.

Learning about Benthic Macroinvertebrates
Learning how to ID Benthic Macroinvertebrates

Check out the Highlights from our many years of Water Education!

Support

The Peterborough Children's Water Festival has been a successful educational event for 19 years thanks to the support of our community partners and local businesses. 

Supporters enable us to promote and deliver water education to hundreds of children in Peterborough and the Kawarthas region annually.

Thanks to our Supporters!

Festival Supporters  - $5,000+

PTBO-logo-colour
Peterborough Utilities

Festival Patron - $2,500-$4,999

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Festival Benefactor - $1,000-$2,499

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Festival Friend -  < $1,000

Grant and Emma Murphy
Herb Lang Drilling
Township of Selwyn
Wayne Stiver

In Kind Sponsorship

City of Peterborough

GreenUP

Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board

Otonabee Conservation

Peterborough Utilities Group

Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board

Riverview Park and Zoo

TRACKS

Trent University

We are enormously grateful for the financial and in-kind contributions of local sponsors that support our in-person festival!

Thank you to past and present sponsors who have supported immersive water education!  We're thinking of all of you in these unprecedented times!

Our 2024 Steering Committee hard at work

City of Peterborough

GreenUp

Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board

Otonabee Conservation

Peterborough Northumberland Victoria and Clarington Catholic District School Board 

Peterborough Utilities Group

Riverview Park and Zoo

Trent University

Wayne Stiver, Community Member