Enjoy Events and Festivals

Celebrate the bicentennial of the Champlain Canal with three days of educational tours, an evening cruise, and riverfront performance of canal music by the Albany Symphony Orchestra brass quintet. Visit the website to see the exciting lineup of tours and activities.

Head to the waterfront to enjoy live music, an artisan craft fair, arts and activities for children as well as local craft beer.

Savor the only cheese-themed food festival in NYS, with artisan and farmstead cheeses, gourmet foods, craft beverages, live entertainment and a food truck food court.

Join the Buffalo Maritime Center as they place the final wooden plank (known as the "whiskey plank") in the hull of the Seneca Chief, a replica of the canal boat that traveled from Buffalo to New York City and back to celebrate the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal. Live music, food, and beverages accompany the ceremony.

Commemorate the bicentennial of the Champlain Canal with a free public concert by the Albany Symphony Orchestra. The Symphony will present the "The Grand March," written in 1823 for the opening of the Champlain Canal, along with other canal-related and contemporary pieces.

Celebrate the autumn harvest and the Champlain Canal Bicentennial on the grounds of the Canal Street Marketplace, a renovated nineteenth century canal barn. The festival features regional farm and artisan products, educational booths, fabulous food, free horse and wagon rides, a local beer tasting tent, and live music.

Run two miles, bike 17 miles, then run another 2 miles through beautiful fall foliage, and conclude with a barbeque dinner. Participate as an individual or team and track your Canalway Challenge miles, or join the cheering section!

Retrace the steps of 104 abolitionists who escaped an angry mob in Utica in 1835, embarked on an Erie Canal lumber barge to Canastota, and climbed the trail to Peterboro where they formed the New York State Anti-Slavery Society. Multiple choirs sing songs of freedom to launch the 2nd Abolitionist Freedom Walk.