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Priddis & Millarville Fair returning to the racetrack

The Millarville Racing and Agricultural Society is bringing its Priddis & Millarville Fair back to the racetrack grounds on its usual third weekend in August after holding the event virtually last year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Kathy Sosnowski with the Sheep Creek Weavers spins yarn at the 112th Priddis-Millarville in 2019. The fair is back at the racetrack grounds on Aug. 21. (Western Wheel file photo)

One of the region’s oldest summer traditions is returning this month, but on a much smaller scale.

The Millarville Racing and Agricultural Society is bringing its Priddis & Millarville Fair back to the racetrack grounds on its usual third weekend in August after holding the event virtually last year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had to plan this fair back in March,” said event chair Suzanne Sills. “At that point in time, it really wasn’t clear what was going to happen this summer. We planned the fair based on the rules that were in place last November for our Christmas market, which was limited capacity within the arena and on the grounds.”

The 114th annual fair takes place Aug. 21 with bench exhibits in the arena for arts and handicrafts, fibre arts, flowers, fruits, vegetables, home cooking, baking and woodworking. Virtual entries will be accepted for photography and showmanship classes in sheep and dairy goats.

“We decided to scale back the number of competition classes that we offer so that we could space out everything in the arena and still offer a real bench show, yet deal with any capacity restrictions or spacing requirements,” said Sills.

On the grounds, spectators can watch feature shows in gymkhana, western riding, English riding and the beef cattle show both Saturday and Sunday.

All entries will be judged with ribbons and prize money awarded.

Sills said she’s particularly excited about this year’s Agricultural Literacy Adventure, a new government-funded program that has participants learning about agriculture with displays of live animals and educational signs throughout the arena and at vendors on Aug. 21. Participants take a questionnaire pertaining to the information provided and turn it in to enter a draw for a pass to attend the Millarville Chuckwagon and Chariot Races Sept. 10-12.

“It’s to get people really engaged and give them something to do because we’re not going to have the regular stuff we have like the watermelon and pie eating and stage entertainment,” she said.

Sills said the events will be well-spaced with no grandstand seating or social gatherings.

Because people have been shut up (in their homes) for so long and had activities cut back for so long, it’s taking people time, I found with our volunteers anyway, to ramp up again,” she said. “We would love to be able to offer more and we have had lots of people say, ‘Why can’t you do this?' or ‘Why can’t we do that?’ but at the time we had to make the plan, we did the best we could with the information that we had.”

Sills said it was a struggle deciding which events to continue and which to hold off until future years.

“We really struggled with what to do and what not to do,” she said. “A lot of people are still skeptical about getting into crowded places and around people they don’t know. We scaled it back to a level everyone feels comfortable with.”

The Saturday Millarville Farmers’ Market will continue at full capacity with the full slate of vendors participating, as it has throughout the season, said Sills.

“We’re hoping we’ll capture that foot traffic, as well as anyone coming to participate specifically in the fair,” she said.

Continuing to host the Priddis & Millarville Fair, even with the uncertainty around restrictions and the pandemic, was critical, Sills said.

“We didn’t want to lose touch with the community who supported us for so longer, that’s why we did it virtually last year,” she said. “Maintaining that connection was important to us last year. It’s even more important this year because we were only virtual last year. We’re really hoping to see a lot of our long-time supporters out and we’re hoping that we’ll be back full steam ahead next year.”

To learn more visit http://www.millarvilleracetrack.com/fair/

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