It’s on! In Real Life! The board of the Wilberforce Agricultural Society met at the end of January, and decided to bring back the Wilberforce Agricultural Fair. So mark your calendars for Friday Aug. 5 and Saturday Aug. 6. Now there is something wonderful to look forward to.
The Fair has been going since 1984. It has always been a family affair. Families attend together, enter competitions together, play games and win prizes together, and even volunteer to make the event happen. There are horse pulls, pony pulls and kids pedal tractor pulls! There are farm animals! Free pony rides! Contests! Crafting for kids! “Milky the Cow” will be there! There’s a Games Zone for anyone who is a kid at heart, and adults and kids show off in the home crafts and gardening and photography exhibits! There’s prizes and and music and Fair food!

I first went to the Fair in 2001, when I moved here full time, and I haven’t missed one since. It marks the peak of summer. Somehow at least in my memory, there is always a gorgeous sunset and a full moon on Friday night for the pony pulls ( the big horses pull on Saturday). I love the ponies best.They’re like sled huskies, happy, small and mighty. Friday is the night to see the ponies and see who ‘s come out a winner in the homecraft and garden exhibits and chat with whoever you run into that you haven’t seen in a while. Saturday is the day to go back and grab a Fair lunch, ( a Fair hamburger is the best hamburger!) check out the exhibits and demonstrations and vendors and watch the kids eyes get big like saucers when the heavy horses come out to pull and make the ground shake under the stands.

If you want to have the best time, the way to guarantee it is to enter something. There’s a multitude of categories of things you can enter in the Fair, in fact I bet that almost anything you or your kids do for fun will fit a category. Instructions for how to enter are on the Fair website www.wilberforcefair.com.
Submitted by Joan Barton