Sun Run Festival a success on many levels

September 25, 2026

By Michael Riley, Local Journalism Reporter

The Sun Run Revival Festival took place at Sun Run Farms in Maynooth from Sept. 4 to 6. This is the 4th annual
festival to be held at Sun Run Farms. The gates opened at 3 p.m. on Friday and at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday and
provided festival goers with three days of live music, art, and heritage. There was also onsite camping available to those
who wanted to avail themselves of the opportunity. Performers throughout the weekend included John Foreman, Tammy
Lin Foreman and the Ephemerals, Marc Audet, Benji Rowland, Mystikana, Snakes of Ontario, The Salt Cellars, Chris
Hayward, Smokey Sundaze, Bleached Out, Little Fire Collective, History Buffs, Babe Chorus, Washboard Hank and
Reverend Ken, Mosey and Eddy, Jim Henry, WEBMadman, Ian Russell, Canoe Conspiracy, and open jams at the
campfire. Tammy Lin Foreman, the organizer this year, comments to The Bancroft Times about the festival.
Foreman told The Bancroft Times on Sept. 1 that planning was coming along well, the grounds were looking good and
finishing touches were happening on the farm to get ready for the festival.
“We have a lot of volunteers that are coming out to lend a hand. The community really rallies around getting ready for
the festival every year. We are very grateful to all of the volunteers who help us to create a welcoming space to showcase
the local arts and culture of our area as well as the volunteers that help things run smoothly during the festival. We have
a lot of community support. We have an amazing community culture that supports the Sun Run Revival [Festival],” she
says.
This is the 4th annual Sun Run Revival Festival this year according to Foreman, and it’s been growing year after year.
“The first year was about 75 people with one and a half days of music, the second year was about 150 people with two
days of music, the third year was about 200 people with two days of music. This year we have added Friday night
programming as well to have two and a half days, and there are artists, workshops, Indigenous learning and more vendors
in the mix. We have been advertising more and received a grant and in-kind donation from Hastings Highlands as well as
their support that allowed us to apply for a grant from the Building Community through Arts and Heritage Program,
which we did receive. We are expecting around 400 people this year,” she says.
Foreman explains that the Sun Run Revival Festival is a multi-generational gathering that is about building community
and having an end of summer celebration to showcase the area’s local arts and culture.
“We have so many diverse and talented musicians in the area and so little venue space for them to play in. And this
year we have included some local visual artists. They will be showing their unique outdoor art and sculptures across the
farm, some of them on a bigger scale. Artists that will be here are Rocky Zenyk, Ryan Longo, Stu Vickars and Dave
Maris who has built a beautiful, private forest labyrinth. We have a local Indigenous elder, Jimmy Green, coming to
build a wigwam and he has invited festival goers to sew the birch bark on during the festival. We have an eclectic mix of
music from Local Heritage Music to Hip Hop, and Ethereal Folk to 90s Rock and more. There is something here for
everyone to enjoy. We will have two food vendors on site, Island Cream from Peterborough will be serving rotis and
curries, and Sun Run Kitchen serving vegetarian options and baked goods. We had a couple of great vendors last year.
This year we’ve invited a few more who will be there selling their unique wares—including Sun Run Revival T-shirts and
other merch!” she says.
Foreman says she has only been involved in the festival for the last couple of years and missed year one, and says that
not only is she involved in organizing it but is performing with her band, Tammy Lin Foreman and the Ephemerals.
“I spend a lot of time running around making sure everything is going smoothly.
Some of my favourite moments are when I finally get to step away from the work, watch the musicians, dance and enjoy
all of the music with everyone else. Sitting around the campfire playing music after the stages close has been fun! I love
seeing people connecting, meeting new people and watching the community come together. I am also so grateful to have
a place to share my music, it is such an enthusiastic and welcoming place to perform! These are the moments that remind
me as to why I love doing this work and that what we are doing is really valuable for uniting the community,” she says.
Foreman says that if folks love to experience and support local arts, music and culture, if you enjoy camping, nature and campfires, if you are drawn to building community connections, then you will absolutely enjoy coming to SunRun Revival.
If you’re on the fence, check out the website, https://sunrunfarms.ca/sunrun-revival-2/, to see the line-up, or the
Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/sunrunrevival, and Instagram account,
https://www.instagram.com/sunrunrevival/ for updates. It›s a busy time for us organizers, but if you have a question,
reach out!” she says.
Sandra was there with her friend RV enjoying the festivities. “It’s just such a wonderful energy, everybody is just so relaxed and the food is amazing. You will enjoy yourself,” she says.
Heather with HeatherMade, one of the vendors there, thought it was great. “I like this temperature, but I find it’s much more festive when it’s like rocking hot like last year, but it’s been really
good. The music’s always really incredible here. I’m really happy to see the diversity of performers because I find a lot
of these sorts of festivals are committed to one genre and oftentimes it’s so repetitive,” she says.
Foreman told The Bancroft Times that she felt that the festival was a success on many levels. “I was really happy with all of the help from the volunteers, they were great and we couldn’t have pulled it off without them. We had a lot more people through the gate starting Saturday late afternoon and by Saturday night we had a peak crowd – not sure what the count was. We have an organizer debrief meeting tomorrow night and I will have more information after that. We received a lot of feedback from attendees saying what a great time that they had, and how amazing the music was. This was the goal, so we nailed it!” she says.
One of the highlights of the festival for Foreman this year was experiencing the outdoor artwork from local artists. “It was amazing seeing Ryan Longo’s ‘Bumpy the Angler Fish’ all lit up at night, the beautiful and meaningful copper sculptures from Rocky Zenyk that were mounted on a tree stump by the food vendors, the wigwam that Jimmy Green was building, and the forest labyrinth that Dave Maris made enhanced by wood/metal pieces from Stu Vickars. The art was new to the festival, and we would love to have more from artists next year.
I also loved hearing so many diverse musical genres in one place. Another highlight was seeing so many people dancing
and especially when I was viewing this from the stage as I was performing with my band. I enjoyed tasting the delicious
food from the food vendors and finding unique goods at the market village. Michaela DeCarlo was selling amazing
SunRun merch which she shared with the festival. As well, she hosted a workshop on Automatic Writing that was well
attended and really impactful for folks who came. I was once again impressed by the quality of sound that Damon Gold
was curating for our musicians, all of the musical performances really shone because of it. He truly is an incredible and
experienced sound person, and we are so fortunate to have him at such a discounted rate. Sound quality takes a music
festival to the next level. Our photographer Michael Hankus took a lot of amazing photos. We are already planning for
next year and how we can improve upon what we learned from this year,” she says. “We all learned a lot and had fun at