Downtown Midland was bustling Saturday, as people stood, shoulder to shoulder, in lineups up to 75 people long for popular butter tart vendors selling their sweet wares at the ninth Ontario's Best Butter Tart Festival.
People employed a variety of strategies to find their favourite tarts. Some showed up before the 9 a.m. start, purchased tarts and ran before there were any lineups.
Others ran in the Butter Tart Trot, burning lots of calories, before eating anything sweet.
Philip Murphy, of Hamilton, carried a butter tart along the entire 5K race course, only eating it after he crossed the finish line.
"It is the sweetest run, so I thought I should carry one."
Nora Goman, 8, of Hamilton completed the 5K with her aunt, Amy Goman, and her grandmother Nadine Goman, who was way behind Nora. The family enjoyed the festival after their run.
Circles and Squares/Baxter's Bakery owner David Baxter has been a vendor since the second festival. They brought 3,000 to 4,000 butter tarts on their first year and were sold out by 11 a.m.
"Then, we didn't know what to so," Baxter said.
They enjoyed last year because it was the first time everyone was getting out after COVID.
"It was really packed last year," he said.
This year, they had large trays full of tarts and lots of staff to handle demand.
Do Dos baker is a popular choice for festival goers, having won awards at the festival in years past. They were sold out by 11 a.m. Saturday. They brought 360 dozen, half of what they had last year. They would have brought more but they couldn't find enough staff to make more.
"Just about every one of those butter tarts that went out of here today, I made the dough and rolled it," said Diane Rogers, owner.
A collision on Highway 12, west of Reeves Road, delayed many festival goers as police had the highway blocked off in both directions with a detour in Tay Township.
Watch for more on the festival later today.
