The second annual Mac and Cheese Festival is returning to Toronto

Mac and Cheese loving foodies flocked to the second annual Mac and Cheese Festival at Ontario Place West Island Saturday and Friday.

The three-day festival is free for guests and features 75 vendors in total. Forty of those vendors are backed by Toronto’s top chefs and food entrepreneurs.

This year’s festival will be three times bigger than last year’s, with close to 100,000 thousand people attending throughout the weekend.

“It is all about top quality food and beverage supporting local businesses, ensuring Torontonians and visitors are given an amazing event experience and taste some of the best mac and cheese the city has ever tasted,” said Daniel Janetos, Director, Strategic Partnerships, Mac and Cheese Festival.

New to 2016, the Mac and Cheese Festival has added a Craft Beer and Cider Bay, Carnival Corner with games, rides and eats, Food Truck Island, Artisanal Market, Dairy Farmers of Canada and Metro Cooking Stage, more live entertainment and free shuttle bus pickups to and from Ontario Place. Prizes for the top tier mac and cheese dish include “Best of Fest” who will be awarded with a $5,000 cash prize, in addition to “Judge’s Choice” and the “People’s Choice” award, who will be awarded a free booth for 2017.

Event organizers have chosen to donate a percentage of profits raised to the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Foundation; the first organization in Canada created solely to fund wildlife rescue organizations in the care, raising and release of orphaned and injured wildlife.

“We are very honoured and thankful that the Mac and Cheese Festival will be donating crucial funds to the National Wildlife

Agencies/Canadajournal