Tips:
- Peterborough Veg Fest is held at this park every September.
- The park is beautiful, but there are safety issues at the facilities.
- There is a parking lot next to the park. When there is an event and this parking lot is full, you can park on the street. It's free on weekends.
I have been to Millennium Park a couple of times. Both were for Peterborough Veg Fest. I went during its inaugural year back in 2017. I recently returned for a visit.
Both visits were on a Sunday. Parking is free on the street. There is a parking lot next to the park. I didn't bother trying to park there, as vendors probably need it to load and unload their equipment, food, and more.
Millennium Park is a scenic spot right on the Otonabee River. Stopping by the Silver Bean Cafe for a drink and ice cream with a view is wonderful, which is what my best friend and I have done in the past. She lives in the city, so it's nice when she recommends places for me to visit and enjoy.
I like the Millennium walkway, as it has details about this park and I tend to learn a lot through self-discovery. As the name suggests, it was built to commemorate the turn of the year 2000.
Before it became the manicured parkland that exists today, this entire stretch of the Otonabee River waterfront was a largely industrial, undeveloped plot of land owned by the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority. The city began transforming the space in 1998, and it officially opened to the public in 2001.
What I learned was that during the Y2K celebrations, the city sealed a millennium time capsule right inside the park's central water fountain (the waterfall) on August 6, 2000. The city dug up and unsealed this capsule last summer (August 2025) to celebrate its 25th anniversary. It revealed photos and artifacts of what Peterborough looked like right when the park was built.
The time capsule in 2000 had these items:
- Technology: A floppy disk, a cassette tape of local music, and early digital photos of downtown.
- Culture: Menus from local restaurants back in the day, a 1999 Peterborough telephone directory (phone book!), and local newspapers from New Year's Eve 1999.
- Community: Letters written by local elementary school students imagining what the world would look like in 2025, along with a list of popular toys and trends from that year, such as Beanie Babies and Pokémon cards)
The city created a 2025 time capsule and buried it in the same location as the first capsule, but had a different focus with the items stored in the new one:
- A custom children's book: A collaborative book featuring the direct voices, personal stories, and lived experiences of local Canadian newcomers adjusting to life in Peterborough.
- Local poetry: An original poem, Trains on a Train Track,
written and performed at the unsealing ceremony by local poet Sam Banton.
- Indigenous and cultural contributions: Artwork and symbolic tokens contributed by local Indigenous youth and community partners to represent the ongoing history of the land.
- Modern civic memorabilia: A commemorative 175th-anniversary pin and items bearing the city's updated municipal logo, which was rolled out specifically for the 2025 milestone.
This park has a butterfly pavilion located in the north end. I completely missed it, as vendors for Veg Fest were in front of it.
This park is fully paved, flat, and has wheelchair-accessible paths that connect directly to the Trans Canada Trail. It was nice seeing folks in wheelchairs and walkers out and about for Veg Fest, enjoying the sunshine and more.
The public washrooms are by the main park entrance. I feel that the public washrooms are a major safety concern. As a female visitor, I experienced a man entering the women's washroom to smoke up. Having to breathe that in and deal with that safety risk was unacceptable. The park is great for a walk, but skip the onsite washrooms if you can.
Other than the washroom concerns, it's a nice park with lots of trees and a gorgeous view of the waterway.
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