Siege re-enactment sees biggest turnout since pandemic
August 10, 2026 at 3:58 AM
The annual Siege of Old Fort Erie re-enactment drew its largest number of visitors and participants since before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the fort’s manager Erin Ronfeld.
The two-day event wrapped up Sunday at the historic site on Lakeshore Road, featuring battle re-enactments, artillery demonstrations and military camps.
“This is the first time really since COVID that I’ve seen numbers like this, both for visitation and for participants,” Ronfeld told Fort Erie Radio.
The Royal Artillery re-enactor fires the fort’s three-inch Cohorn mortar during Sunday’s demonstration, ending the weekend with a bang over the Niagara River. Credit: Andrew Hawlitzky | Fort Erie RadioThe Niagara Parks event commemorates the 1814 siege, when British forces under Lieutenant-General Gordon Drummond tried to retake the fort from an American garrison.
A failed night assault that August killed hundreds of men, most of them British and Canadian soldiers, after a powder magazine exploded beneath one of the fort’s bastions. Niagara Parks has described the site as Canada’s bloodiest battlefield.
Ronfeld said more re-enactors registered for the battlefield this year than in the past three or four seasons, with participants coming from as far away as Alabama and, for the first time, three groups from Quebec.
The weekend got off to a rough start. Heavy rain and wind on Saturday collapsed several tents in the encampment and soaked participants’ uniforms.
Re-enactors in period dress haul firewood as cleanup begins at Old Fort Erie. Credit: Andrew Hawlitzky | Fort Erie RadioRonfeld said re-enactors helped each other recover their gear, and people in the surrounding neighbourhood pitched in.
“People actually opened their doors, they were throwing the laundry in the dryer for everyone,” she said.
The fort saw record visitation during the War of 1812 bicentennial, Ronfeld said, before numbers plummeted during the pandemic, when staff held smaller commemorations outdoors.
Saturday’s program re-created Drummond’s Night Assault, followed by a lantern tour through the fort staged as the aftermath of the attack.
Sunday closed the weekend with the Sortie battle, a mortar demonstration on the siege lines and a ceremony re-enacting the American evacuation of the fort, in which the American flag is lowered and replaced with the British one.
At the mortar demonstration, supervisor Jarrod Cunliffe walked visitors through the workings of the fort’s three-inch Cohorn mortar, a portable siege weapon designed to lob explosive shells over walls, and the training behind the Royal Artillery crews who fired them. Credit: Andrew Hawlitzky | Fort Erie Radio“These guys are educated, they’re scientists,” Cunliffe said.
Among the participants this year were Chris and Karen Travers, who re-enact with the Canadian Volunteers, a unit of Upper Canadians who fought for the Americans during the war.
“We’re like traitors. We’re like the original baddies, right?” Chris Travers said. “We do Stoney Creek and people boo us, it’s awesome.”
Ronfeld said she’s also noticed more young people visiting the fort this year. She credits the federal Canada Strong Pass, which offers free admission to those 18 and under until Labour Day and half-price admission for visitors aged 19 to 24.
“We’re hoping that we’re going to keep seeing that until we get back to kind of those pre-COVID numbers,” she said.
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About The Author
Andrew Hawlitzky
Andrew is a Niagara community journalist who has covered everything from local politics to annual festivals and breaking news. He works to make local news a platform where community voices lead the conversation. "If you don't like the news, go out and make some!"
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