Toronto Waterfront Festival 2025 Tall Ships Return

Toronto Waterfront Festival 2025
Tall Ships Return
June 28 – 29, 2025

The award winning Toronto Waterfront Festival, presented by Redpath, is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated return of the Tall Ships to Toronto’s Waterfront. From June 28-29, 2025,  a fleet of historic tall ships will be docked at Sugar Beach to celebrate the start of summer.

The 2025 fleet will be comprised of all schooners and include three ships that have never visited Toronto before: Lettie G. Howard, built in 1893 and a ‘living history’ vessel for education and sail training; Ernestina-Morrissey, known for her unique place in immigration history; and Liberty Clipper, named after John Hancock’s revolutionary-era ship. Returning favorites include the Empire Sandy, Canada’s largest passenger ship of her kind, and Pride of Baltimore II, which has visited over 200 ports in 40 countries.

The full 2025 fleet will include:

• Empire Sandy: Canada’s largest tall ship of her kind.
• Ernestina-Morrissey: Known for her unique place in immigration history.
• Liberty Clipper: Named after John Hancock’s revolutionary-era ship.
• Pride of Baltimore II, presented by Menkes: Has visited over 200 ports in 40 countries.
• Lettie G. Howard: built in 1893 and one of the last surviving fishing schooners from the U.S.
• Canadian Coast Guard:  Vessel TBC

While general admission to the festival is free, visitors are strongly encouraged to purchase tickets in advance to get onboard the visiting tall ships, to explore their decks and meet their crews. New in 2025 is the unique opportunity to sail onboard Canada’s Largest tall ship, Empire Sandy. This ship will sail away 4 times each day including a coveted sunset sail each night. Tickets are on sale now and sail-aways are expected to sell out fast. Visit HERE for tickets.

To complement the visiting ships, the festival will expand over to Sherbourne Common and feature nautical entertainment, food vendors, interactive activities, partner giveaways, and much more. The festival will also have on-land activations from the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Armed Forces, Canadian Coast Guard, Live Green Toronto and Moccasin Identifier.

The festival is proud to have Redpath Sugar as the presenting partner for the 2025 event, continuing their longstanding commitment to the festival and the Waterfront community. Other 2025 partners include The Waterfront BIA, City of Toronto, Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Menkes Developments, George Brown College, Porter Airlines, Westin Harbour Castle and Tall Ships America.

For more information on the 2025 Toronto Waterfront Festival and to purchase tickets for tall ship deck tours and exclusive sail-away experiences, visit www.towaterfrontfest.com and follow @towaterfrontfest on social media.

Be sure to check their website and social platforms to learn all the details, updates and more!

ABOUT TORONTO WATERFRONT FESTIVAL:
The Toronto Waterfront Festival, in partnership with the Waterfront BIA, is an annual summer event that celebrates the uniqueness of Toronto’s waterfront with on-land and on-water programming. The festival showcases the history, culture and importance of water through nautical attractions, arts, culture and indigenous entertainment, music, food and interactive activities. Every three years, the event welcomes a fleet of Tall Ships to Toronto, next in 2025. www.towaterfrontfest.com
The festival is FREE to attend, however in 2024 we are asking attendees to voluntarily pay what they can at our information booths. With rising operations costs and dramatic reduction in government funding from all levels this year, it is a very tough time for most festivals and events in Ontario. As a result, we are asking our visitors to pay what they can to help in any small way to continue to keep the festival alive.
How do I get there?
We encourage visitors to avoid driving and take a ride share, taxi, public transit, bike or walk wherever possible as there is a lot of construction on the waterfront and limited parking.

TTC : For detailed routes please visit the TTC Trip Planner. For accessibility options please visit Wheel Trans.

Walking from GO and Union Station
From Union GO and Subway Station walk south through Union Railway Station into the ACC Galleria and walk south to Queens Quay. At Queens Quay, turn left and walk for 2-5 minutes to reach 7 Queens Quay East. Look towards the water and you won’t be able to miss Mama Duck.
To plan your trip with GO visit GO Trip Planner.

Driving: To avoid congestion from construction and traffic delays, we suggest taking ride share, a taxi or public transit to the festival and walking south from Union station.

Recurring Event: Yes

Start: 06/28/2025 / End: 06/29/2025
Website: Toronto Waterfront Festival 2025 Tall Ships Return

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