Laurent Noel takes on the Richmond Fair

The 163rd edition of the Richmond Fair is set to open under the presidency Laurent Noel, who only assumed his new role several months ago when Clifford Lancaster suffered a heart attack and stepped down from the post.

Just as the fair is a little different every year, so too are the presidents who serve it, and Laurent Noel might well be described as a little more different than most.

While he was born on a family farm in St.-felix-de-kingsey, Laurent never took up farming.

“I never liked the way that chores tied you down,” he said. “Perhaps if I’d experienced a beef farm, or a grain farm, it might have been different, but when you’ve got morning milking followed evening milking there just doesn’t seem to be much time to go off and do something.”

What Laurent did was train as an electrician and find work in Montreal.

“I’m not a city person,” he said, “but that’s where the work was, so that’s where I went.”

Even so, he always kept two houses: one in Boucherville close to work and one in St. Felix. Today, he lives in a house set on two acres of land that were once part of his father’s dairy farm. While he doesn’t keep animals, he does keep a collection of antique farm machinery and stationary engines. Among other items, he has a 1937 Mccormick Dearing tractor that runs on steel wheels.

In Montreal, he worked for some time for a company now called Héroux-devtek that specializes in the manufacture of aviation components like landing gear for aircraft.

“I didn’t work on the project myself,” he shared, “but the legs of the lunar module that landed Neil Armstrong on the moon were manufactured at Héroux.”

For a number of years he also worked at the Canadian Forces Base at Longue –Pointe where he was chief electrician and in charge of the electrical shop.

“I was a civilian,” he pointed out, “but I was working for the military. I had over a dozen electricians working under me, and I had to deal with all of the paperwork that comes with administering budgets.”

In 1997, Laurent went into business for himself as a master electrician. “Sometimes I hired another man,” he said, “but usually I worked just by myself. I didn’t earn any less money, and I didn’t miss the paperwork at all.”

Now retired to his home in St. Felix, Laurent’s electrical experience is still occasionally called on, as he was three years ago when he was led to the fairgrounds on Route 143.

“A friend asked me to take a look at a problem on the electrical panel at the fairgrounds and give him my opinion,” he recounted. “Someone had played with a breaker causing the lights to go off in the arena in the middle of a show.”

Laurent Noel’s advice turned out to be helpful enough that he was invited to join the Richmond Fair’s board of governors.

Since then, and even more so now that he’s president, Laurent’s multiple manual skills continue to be called on. While the Richmond Fair runs for four days—5th, 6th, 7th, 8th of September— preparations at the fairgrounds have been going on since June. Labouring alongside other directors and volunteers, Laurent has been doing cement work, metal work, and carpentry work as well as electrical work.

“We’ve made some changes to the electrical system,” he noted. “In several different places we installed secondary breakers. This way, if there’s a problem, you don’t have to run all the way back to the electrical panel, and you don’t run the risk of flipping the wrong breaker.”

Maintaining the lighting is one major consideration at the fairgrounds and another is security. A central permanent alarm system safeguards both the office and the main barn, a space that offers winter storage for boats, RVS, cars, and trucks.

Laurent’s managerial experience at CFB Longue-pointe comes in handy at fair time.

“We have a budget that runs over $100 000,” he pointed out. “Our biggest expense is the rental of the carnival rides, but we also have to rent stands and portable fencing. We hire as many as two dozen security guards to have round the clock security. We hire parking attendees to manage the parking lots. We hire two certified medical responders with an ambulance on stand-by. We disburse for insurance for the demolition derby. The expenses that go into mounting the fair are considerable.”

Not that visitors are often aware of all that’s involved behind the scenes. Laurent, like so many other visitors, came to the fair years on end without ever thinking about it.

“We’re still a traditional agricultural fair,” he says, pointing out that some fairs now don’t show animals. “We feature dairy and beef cows, sheep and goats, horses, chickens and rabbits, as well as artisanal and horticultural exhibits. We have millions of dollars worth of farm machinery and tractors on display.”

“But we feature a lot of entertainment as well,” he continued, “a petting zoo, a carnival midway, a blacksmithing demonstration. There’s live music and a beer tent. There are truck and tractor pulls, including a more recent and very popular even, a mini-tractor pull. We have horse shows and a wheelbarrow races. On Sunday we will again be holding a demolition derby, and entrants are asked to register early because the inspection process is quite thorough.”

“This year we’ll have a tent displaying artwork,” Laurent added, “and, as last year, a sculptor from France who works with a chainsaw and who will turn logs up to 24 inches in diameter into sculptures.”

Richmond Fair runs from Thursday, Sept. 5 to Sunday, Sept. 8. Admission is $20. On Saturday and $15 on Friday and Sunday.