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Queens County Fair running scaled-back program in 2021

PAUL PICKREM SPECIAL TO SOUTH SHORE BREAKER CONTRIBUTED BY BERYL SELIG

Marcus Tufts has a lifetime of memories of the Queens County Fair in Caledonia.

As a four-year-old, Tufts competed in the ox-pull event with a team of oxen affectionally named Spark and Toby.

Tufts grew up in Caledonia but now lives in Barrington, Shelburne County. However, he said he has returned with a team to compete in the ox pull every year since.

Recently, however, the exhibition experience has changed dramatically for

Tufts and the other competitors. The exhibition program had to be cut back in 2020 and will be again this year because of health restrictions during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s really a shame. It’s such a beautiful little fair when everything is running,” Tufts said during a recent interview.

“It’s different. But they are doing everything they can do to try to make it enjoyable for us. It’s nice to be able to get out and go and see the other competitors and stuff.

“If COVID would get over and we could get back to normal it would be a great time again,” Tufts said.

Doreen Holdright has been active as an exhibition organizer for over 20 years. Holdright said the last full exhibition schedule was in September 2019, because health restrictions required the cancellation of several popular events, including those related to food and food preparation.

“When you come to Queens County Fair you are coming to a good-old-fashioned agricultural fair. It means you are looking at all aspects of agriculture. Not just the animals,” Holdright said. “You are also seeing the horticultural events with the vegetables and the flowers, canning and preserving. Anything related to farm life back years ago. Right down the homemaking, the baking, sewing and making quilts and clothes. Whatever it took to live back when.”

Holdright said in the 1920s people would come to the exhibition by train from Bridgewater. And there are reports of over 100 pairs of horses another year, as spectators and participants arrived in wagon trains bringing their livestock.

According to the Queens County Fair website, the exhibition grew out of the first one-day exhibition to be held in North Queens in October 1880 in a mill built over the brook in Harmony, N.S. The exhibits included grain, roots, dairy products and wool and flax products.

In 1886, the exhibition association purchased permanent quarters in Caledonia for $10. The fair has been held on this site ever since. In 1935, it became the Queens County Fair, serving the whole community.

But for the second year in a row, the fair, which runs special events year-round, besides the five days in September, will focus on separate events spread over a few months.

A three-day ox pull was held on September 16,17,18. Upcoming events include a horse pull and live music featuring local bands and artists in the pavilion on Sept. 24 and 25.

On Oct. 23, the Western Shore Barrell Racers will hold a competition. And an ATV rally is scheduled for Nov. 6.

“We can’t do an exhibition. So, we are doing individual events, which supports all our teamsters and the individuals who have supported us in the past during exhibitions. They want to get out and do things and we need to raise a little money to keep things going,” Holdright said.

Holdright said the fair itself has managed to survive financially. But the limited programming has hindered the fundraising efforts of community organizations who host special events on the site or are vendors at the fair during the five exhibition days in September.

“The exhibition is a major part of the North Queens area. It supports all the other non-profit organizations in the area. It is important to the heritage and culture of the Queens County area,” Holdright said.

Holdright said organizers are looking forward to getting the exhibition schedule back on track next year.

“I would like to (see) our regular exhibitions go back to where they were when you could have multiple events with no restrictions on attendance,” she said.

“If there are any restrictions, we will follow them. But we are hoping that they are lifted so that we can go back to having a normal exhibition.”

Go Online: Information on the calendar of events for 2021 is available at queenscountyfair. ca and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ groups/228462900538897/ about.

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2021-09-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

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