If you have lived in Rockland or Bourget for more than a season, you already know the calendar shifts in August. The Canada Day crowds at Simon Park have thinned, the car show trailers are gone, and the municipality settles into a quieter rhythm that most listings pages will never bother to explain. That rhythm is the point of this post. Clarence-Rockland's late summer is not one big event. It is a rotating cadence between two market sites and one small performance hall, all sitting within a fifteen-minute drive of each other, and the schedule for the next few weeks lines up almost perfectly for anyone who wants to spend weekends close to home.
The two-weekend cadence
The CR Market runs on the second Sunday of each month from May to September at Simon Park in Rockland. The Bourget Community Market runs on the third Saturday from May to October at the Bourget Pavilion. That means every August is built the same way: one Sunday at Du Parc Avenue, one Saturday the following weekend at the trail pavilion, with weekdays in between for anything indoors. This year the sequence lands on August 9 and August 15, back to back.
The distance between the two sites is short enough that regulars often treat them as a pair rather than a choice. Simon Park sits at 1450 Du Parc Avenue in Rockland. The Bourget Pavilion sits along the Prescott-Russell Recreational Trail off Levis Street. If you cycle, the trail itself connects the two communities. If you drive, it is a straightforward run east on County Road 17 and south into Bourget.
What's actually happening this month
| Date | Event | Where | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wed, Aug 5 | La Slice French improv | Optimiste Performance Hall, 1525 Du Parc Ave | 8:00–10:00 p.m. |
| Sun, Aug 9 | CR Market Summer Day Market | Simon Park, 1450 Du Parc Ave | 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. |
| Sat, Aug 15 | Bourget Community Market | Bourget Pavilion, Prescott-Russell Trail | 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. |
Three anchors in eleven days. That is enough to plan around without ever opening a browser tab for anything outside the municipality.
Sunday, August 9 — Simon Park
The CR Market gives vendors a chance to sell their produce and products directly to visitors, supports the local economy, and increases access to fresh food from local farmers and small businesses. That framing is on the city page, but the on-the-ground version is more useful. The market wraps around the walking path inside Simon Park, so you are moving through the site rather than working a straight row of tents.
A few things worth knowing before you go. Chantale Stucker of Creative Celebrations has been the market lead since 2024 and is continuing in 2026, and her Frozen Flamingo ice cream and candy truck is part of the market's food lineup. If you have kids with you, the Frozen Flamingo is the shortest path to a cooperative afternoon.
Vendor rules keep the mix locally weighted rather than turning into a flea market. Vendors must grow, bake, or make what they sell, and priority goes to producers within a 100 km radius. That is why the same names appear month after month. If you saw a producer you liked in July, they are almost certainly back on the 9th.
Two practical notes for August:
- Bring a bottle. There is no electricity at vendor stalls and the day can heat up on the paved section of the loop.
- If you want a specific vendor, arrive before 11:30. Baked goods and produce move first, and the Sunday timing catches church-and-brunch traffic on the way out.
Saturday, August 15 — the Bourget Pavilion
The Bourget market is a different animal, and that is why the two weekends complement rather than duplicate each other. It started small. The first Bourget Community Market took place along the Prescott-Russell Recreational Trail in Bourget on October 15, 2022, organized by Bourget resident Juliana Skarecky-Colwell in cooperation with the trail corporation, with the goal of raising awareness of community initiatives, supporting local businesses, sharing live music, and promoting use of the trail. Four years in, that founding intent is still visible in the layout. The market runs on the trail, not off to the side of it, so cyclists, dog walkers, and the tent rows share the same corridor.
The setup itself is modest. Each vendor gets a 10x10 space outside, is responsible for their own tent, table, and chair, and days run 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Expect a smaller footprint than Simon Park and a stronger emphasis on crafts and prepared goods alongside produce.
If you have been meaning to try a section of the Prescott-Russell Recreational Trail but never had a reason, the Bourget market is the reason. Park at the Pavilion, do the market first, then walk or cycle a stretch of the trail before heading back. The trail was built on a former rail bed, so the grades are gentle and the surface holds up well through August.
A Wednesday detour worth booking
If you want something indoors mid-week, La Slice runs at the Optimiste Performance Hall in Rockland on Wednesday, August 5, from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. The hall is at 1525 Du Parc Avenue, which puts it about 400 metres from Simon Park. The show is in French, and for anyone raising kids in the French school system or working through their own second-language plateau, an evening of live improv is a better exercise than any app. It is also one of the few Wednesday-night draws in Rockland that is not a restaurant or an arena event.
If you have never been to the Optimiste Hall, the room is compact and the sightlines are honest. There are no bad seats, but there are also not many seats, so booking earlier in the week rather than the day of is the safer move.
The trail is the thread
Neither market makes complete sense in isolation. The reason the August cadence works is the Prescott-Russell Recreational Trail running along the Bourget Pavilion, where local vendors are supported, and the reason the Bourget market exists at all is that the trail already brought people through the site. Rockland's market at Simon Park is inside a municipal park; Bourget's market is inside a linear corridor that runs east toward Alfred and west toward the Ottawa boundary. They are not the same product. Simon Park is where you go for a family Sunday. The Bourget Pavilion is where you go if the day is more about the walk than the shopping.
For residents who moved here from Ottawa East or Orléans in the last few years, this is the part that usually takes a summer or two to notice. The municipality does not concentrate its programming in a single downtown core because there is no single downtown core. The CR Market at Simon Park, the Bourget Pavilion market, the Optimiste Performance Hall, and the trail form a loop, not a hub. Once you start planning around the loop, the calendar starts to feel fuller than it does when you only check what is happening in Rockland proper.
A short "if you only have 90 minutes" list
Not every weekend allows for a full market morning. When the window is tight:
- Simon Park's walking path is a 15-minute loop even without the market open. The perimeter is stroller and mobility-aid friendly.
- The Bourget Pavilion parking lot connects directly onto the trail. A 45-minute out-and-back gets you a real ride without a full afternoon commitment.
- The Optimiste Hall shares a block with Parc Simon, so a Wednesday evening show pairs cleanly with a pre-show walk.
Why this matters for how you plan the rest of the summer
The takeaway is not a list of dates. The takeaway is that Clarence-Rockland's late-summer social infrastructure runs on a two-weekend rotation between Rockland and Bourget, stitched together by the trail and punctuated by whatever the Optimiste Hall has booked mid-week. If you plan around that rotation, August feels generous. If you do not, it feels quiet. Same municipality, same weekends, different experience.
September will bring the next CR Market on the 13th and the next Bourget market on the 19th. The pattern holds through October, then shifts indoors for the winter. Save the loop.
If you are thinking about a move within Clarence-Rockland this fall, or you know someone who is asking what daily life here actually looks like once the festival tents come down, Steve Brunet is happy to talk through the specifics. Let's Connect.
