by Marilyn Snedden
This year’s Almonte Fair was blessed with perfect weather and the directors are thankful for that since the attendance was good and there were smiles everywhere. As usual the Demolition Derby brought a huge crowd on Friday night and Brea Lawrenson thrilled the smaller crowd Saturday night.
Extra music in the Entertainment Pavillion featured Delaney Grant in the afternoons on Saturday & the Valley Rovers on Sunday but it remains a challenge to bring people to a new venue. Renegade & the Stool Pigeons provided the evening shows there.
The goal of providing lots of free family entertainment was achieved with good crowds for Little Ray’s Reptiles, Mystic Drumz,Natalie Labelle and her sheep herding border collies, the
Children’s Games ,the Sheep Shearing Demos,animals and the Corn Play Table at the Education Barn. The Cornerstone Community Church had an activity tent for children with live music,and games so families with small children had many choices other than the midway. However this year with our original midway having problems, Robert Gable of Gable Bros. agreed to come on short notice and provided more rides for older children than other years and was on the grounds, dealing with any small problems that occurred. The fair board is very grateful to him.
Entries were good in the beef, dairy and pigeon shows, but the light horse show which was capably handled by Zoie Laframboise this year had the biggest increase in numbers. She brought a fresh perspective,using Facebook to encourage new entrants.
The heavy horse show on Sunday had fewer entries but the competitors put on an excellent show with their skill at driving the wagons & hitches.
The flowers & vegetable entries brightened up the main hall while the baking, photography,crafts & sewing filled the upper balcony. Sandra McManus and her crafty friends spent hours demonstrating stitchery,rug hooking and weaving in the main hall.
Thank you to all the exhibitors, volunteers from the fair board and their friends as well as the Civitan Club who were in charge of the gates .The number of volunteer hours is staggering but it is fun to work together and now we look forward to the next year when from July 17-29,the theme is “Celebrating 100 years of 4-H in Ontario”.
Coming right up is the Car Toot Bingo which will be held every Wednesday in August at 7:00 pm. As long as no one under 18 years is allowed to play, this fundraiser for the North Lanark Agricultural Society which operates the Almonte Fair, will be allowed to continue.
