Valley Woodturners Plans April Demo and TurnFest 2026 for Ontario Turners

Workshop registration is open for TurnFest 2026, the Ottawa Valley Woodturners' two-day symposium set for May 23 and 24 at the Confederation Education Centre in Ottawa, Ontario.

The event carries a full competition slate across both days: the Marian McGee Award challenge, the Turner of the Year contest, and the Turning of the Year recognition. The McGee Award, which has drawn member piece submissions every year since at least 2019, functions as a year-long challenge that reaches its natural conclusion at TurnFest, giving turners who've been working on a competition piece a concrete finishing-line deadline. Workshop registration is handled through a dedicated page on the club's site, separate from general event registration, confirming that hands-on turning time is built into the two-day program alongside the demonstrations and competitions.

TurnFest arrives at the tail end of a busy April for the club. Just yesterday, on April 11, the Ottawa Valley Woodturners held a full-day member meeting at the same Confederation Education Centre venue, with Michael Poulin serving as the invited guest demonstrator. The club produced bilingual session materials for Poulin in both English and French, a practical detail that reflects the Ottawa Valley's officially bilingual character and signals the club's reach across both linguistic communities in the region.

The April meeting followed the club's standard volunteer-run format: members were asked to RSVP ahead of time and arrive with a packed lunch, keeping costs minimal while keeping participation high. That model, applied across a year-round calendar of introductory courses, mentoring sessions, and monthly Show and Tell meetings, is the infrastructure that makes a two-day event like TurnFest possible. The club's website carries a 30th Anniversary page, a marker of how long this community has been sustaining that kind of programming in the Ottawa region.

The Ottawa Valley Woodturners hold chapter status with the American Association of Woodturners, connecting the local membership to a broader network of demonstrators and guild events across North America. TurnFest 2026 draws on that network for its program while keeping the competition slate focused on club members, which means the same turner who spent a Saturday morning watching a demo at an April meeting can return in May to see that same work judged on the TurnFest floor.

Full program details, workshop registration, and general event registration for May 23-24 are available through the Valley Woodturners club website.