Hey, Toronto! Show off your best veggies and gardens! Win prizes!
New this year! The Best in GrowTO People’s Choice Awards will be hosted live at the CNE!
Prizes for 2024
Gift certificates for a local garden centre
1st place: $300 value
2nd place: $100 value
3rd place: $50 value
Prizes have no monetary or exchange value.
Ribbons for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place
All finalists will receive a family day pass to the CNE for the awards celebration on Sunday, August 25.
Visit the CNE August 16-25 to vote for your favourite Best in GrowTO entries
Entry form
Contest Rules
Categories
Best squashes, gourds and melons
Includes squashes, pumpkins, zucchinis, cucumbers, ornamental gourds, bitter melons and sweet melons.
Criteria
- Must be grown by you or a member of your household in Toronto in 2024
- Only vegetables please! No ribbons, paint or other display enhancements.
Container Gardens
Criteria
- Must be grown by you or your household in Toronto in 2024.
- Can be a garden in a back, front or side yard; in the ground, in raised beds or containers; on a rooftop, balcony, patio, deck, dock or windowsill; indoors or outdoors.
- Residential, institutional, or commercial containers or gardens are welcome.
- Must contain edible, medicinal or pollinator-friendly plants.
Funniest Fruit or Vegetable
Fruits or vegetables with a natural, unusual shape, colour or size
Criteria
- Must be grown by you or your household in Toronto in 2024.
- Alterations not permitted (such as painting, dressing-up or waxing)
- The entry form will ask you for a title that best describes your fruit or vegetable
- Please, no entries with sexual content!
Teeny Tinies
Celebrate the small! Includes any fruit, vegetable or food plant that is a miniature version.
Criteria
- Must be grown by you or a member of your household in Toronto in 2024.
- Only vegetables please! No ribbons, paint or other display enhancements.
Entry form
Contest Rules
Best in Grow TO People’s Choice Awards 2024 Rules
The Best in GrowTO People’s Choice Awards 2024 (the “Contest”) is sponsored by Toronto Urban Growers (TUG) and the Canadian National Exhibition(CNE) through its producer, the Canadian National Exhibition Association(CNEA) (the “Sponsors”). This contest is subject to all applicable laws of the Province of Ontario and the laws of Canada, as well as the Contest rules.
How to enter
No purchase is necessary. The contest is free to enter for all residents of the City of Toronto.
Entrants must fill out an entry form online by 5:00 p.m. Monday, August 12, 2024 at https://forms.gle/bsVpJSAEaGgQgBKC7.
Photos must be emailed to UAweekTO@gmail.com by 5:00 p.m. Monday, August 12, 2024.
Only one entry per category is allowed per person or household. Odds of winning depend on the number of entrants.
Eligibility
The contest is open to all Toronto residents 18 years of age and older (or under 18 with permission of a parent or guardian). The Sponsors reserve the right to verify the validity of entries and disqualify entries that do not match category criteria as described on the Contest website.
Members of the UA Week organizing committee, the Canadian National Exhibition Association and their immediate families are not eligible to enter the contest.
Prizes
Finalists will be decided by Best in GrowTO judges according to category criteria posted on the Contest website. Results will be posted by 11:59 pm Tuesday, August 13, 2024. Finalists will be notified by the contact information provided (email or phone). Neither Sponsors nor Best in GrowTO judges are responsible for failure to reach entrants by contest deadlines. Judges reserve the right to disqualify entries that do not provide complete information on the entry forms. Judges’ decisions are final.
Finalists must bring entries to the CNE for public voting on the date for their category:
August 15: Teeny Tinies and Funniest Fruit or Vegetable
August 20: Container Gardens and Squash, Gourds and Melons
Each entry must be at the Best in GrowTO booth at the CNE for the full display period for the relevant category. Photo entries may be accepted at the discretion of the Sponsors.
Entries will be on display at the Best in GrowTO booth for public voting during CNE open hours as follows:
August 16-20: Teeny Tinies and Funniest Fruit or Vegetable
August 21-25: Container Gardens and Squash, Gourds and Melons
Prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place will be given according to the number of votes entered by the public for each entry during the voting period. Prizes for each category are:
1st place: $300 gift certificate for a local garden supply centre
2nd place: $100 gift certificate for a local garden supply centre
3rd place: $50 gift certificate for a local garden supply centre
First, second and third place winners will also receive ribbons. Prizes have no monetary or exchange value.
Contest results will be announced at the CNE on Sunday, August 25, 2024. Results will also be posted on the www.uaweekto.wordpress.com website and may also be posted in CNEA social media and website locations at the discretion of the CNEA. Finalists will receive a CNE family pass to attend the announcement celebration on August 25, 2024.
Conduct
By participating in the Contest, each entrant agrees to be bound by these contest rules (posted at the Contest website). Entrants further agree to be bound by the decisions of the Sponsors and Best in GrowTO judges, which shall be final and binding in all respects. The Sponsors reserve the right, in their sole discretion, to disqualify any entrant found to be violating the Contest Rules and/or acting in a disruptive manner, or annoying, abusing, threatening or harassing the Sponsors, contest judges or volunteers, other entrants or any other person. Contest submissions deemed discriminatory, offensive or abusive by the Sponsors or Best in GrowTO judges will be disqualified.
Limitation of Liability
By participating in this contest, each entrant and winner agrees to release and hold harmless Toronto Urban Growers, its Co-Coordinators, the Canadian National Exhibition Association and contest volunteers and partners from and against any and all liabilities, losses, damages, claims, demands, costs and expenses (including lawyer’s fees and litigation expenses on a solicitor and own client basis) whatsoever relating to the entrant’s participation in the Contest or Contest-related activity, without limitation.
The Sponsors assume no responsibility or liability for lost, late, unintelligible/illegible, falsified, damaged, misdirected or incomplete entries. Entries submitted to the CNE for public voting will not be returned to the entrant.
Privacy
By participating in the Contest, each entrant: (i) grants to the Sponsors the right to use his/her/their name, telephone number, e-mail address and submitted entry for the purpose of administering the Contest. (ii) grants to the Sponsors the right to use his/her/their name, photo and entry material for publicity and promotional purposes relating to the Contest, Toronto Urban Agriculture Week and the Canadian National Exhibition, in any and all media now known or hereafter devised, without further compensation unless prohibited by law.
The Sponsors will use the entrant’s personal information only for identified purposes.
Termination
The Sponsors reserve the right to cancel or modify the Contest or the Contest rules at any time without notice.
Toronto Urban Agriculture Week 