Toronto Waterfront Festival Announces 2025 Tall Ships Return

Mar 25, 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 favourites 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.

“We are incredibly excited to welcome the tall ships back to Toronto’s waterfront,” says Michael Riehl, Chair of Water’s Edge Festivals & Events. “It’s been six years since Torontonians and visitors have had the opportunity to tour these unique ships. Each of these iconic vessels has a unique story to tell, and we’re thrilled to give our visitors the chance to experience them firsthand.”

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

“The tall ships are consistently a top draw for our festival, attracting visitors from across the province and beyond,” adds Mike Riehl. “Our 2019 festival featuring the tall ships attracted 250,000 visitors and generated nearly $6 million in economic impact for the city. While this year’s event won’t be quite as large, we are still expecting a wonderful turnout and exciting on-land activities for all.”
 
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.
 
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
 
ABOUT WATER’S EDGE FESTIVALS & EVENTS:
Water’s Edge Festivals & Events is an Ontario not-for-profit corporation created in 2011 with a mandate to produce cultural family festivals and events to increase tourism to Toronto’s waterfront. WEFE produces the annual Toronto Waterfront Festival and Sugar Shack TO. Past projects have included the pan-provincial TALL SHIPS 1812 Tour (2013) and the ONTARIO 150 Tour (2017) which featured the World’s Largest Rubber Duck.