163-year-old fair comes to an end
For what could be the first time in 163 years, there will not be a Niagara Regional Exhibition.
Facing declining revenues and volunteers, the Niagara Regional Agricultural Society board members reluctantly voted about two weeks ago to cancel this year’s exhibition.
But society president Raymond Ravazzolo said the board plans to bring the historic fair back to Welland in 2017, for Canada’s 150th birthday.
Ravazzolo said the board chose to cancel the NRE this year after some back and forth between board members about “a lot of hard things.”
Board member Bill Foote said declining attendance “definitely played a role” in the decision.
“It’s been a very stressful two years. There’s a lot of issues that have arisen over the past few years that have dragged us a little closer to the edge of the toilet seat,” Foote said.
“It just seems like the people in the region are not really interested in going to an agricultural fair. To be quite honest we haven’t really kept up with the times. You realize the complexity of running an exhibition and the kind of manpower that it actually requires.”
Without the support of the community, Foote said the financial responsibility “takes its toll on you.”
“You’re trying to find different ways of pinching pennies and making changes and being responsible financially to the board and the people of Niagara.”
“Sometimes, there’s just not enough money to put something like this on to the caliber that the public expects,” he said. “It has to be something that is going to pay for itself. Unfortunately over the past few years, we haven’t been able to do that.”
The NRE has invested in the property as well recently, installing lighting and electrical services among other enhancements.
Meanwhile, bringing large attractions to the fair often costs far more than the board recoups through ticket sales, and much of that cost goes toward paying the city.
For instance, security costs are more than $10,000, and paying Welland firefighters to be on standby for the demolition derby or fireworks displays adds significantly to the cost of running the event.
Welland Mayor Frank Campion said he was unaware the NRE was having any difficulties.
Campion said board members from the NRE would have to reach out to the city for assistance, but no one had. If the NRE had contacted the city, Campion said he is sure city councillors would have been in favour of providing assistance.
“We would like to work with them to make that happen. We can enter into talks with them to make it happen. It’s unfortunate, we could have helped them,” Campion said.
Welland is sure to feel an impact from the absence of the Niagara Food Festival and the NRE. Campion said many visitors and vendors come from out of town, they need to stay somewhere and spend money eating out.
“I don’t know what the spin off impact will be, but there will be an economic impact.”
For Campion, the biggest impact is the loss of the exhibition for a year — there are so many memories created. He hopes whatever issues the NRE are dealing with can be resolved so it can return in 2017.
Welland MPP Cindy Forster said she knew the fair had been struggling for the past few years, but learning that the fair had been cancelled was disappointing.
“I try and get there every year,” she said. “But I’ve noticed in the past few years there aren’t as many people attending on a regular basis.”
Forster was encouraged by the plans to regroup and return for 2017.
“Maybe they need to reinvent themselves in some way so they can attract more people from across the region to attend,” she said.
Forster said there are armslength provincial agencies that help finance events, adding Canal Days in Port Colborne has received funding in the past.
However, she said she wasn’t certain whether the fair would meet the criteria for that funding.
Forster said the loss of the event this year will be felt by other organizations, too.
“They use volunteer groups to actually take the fares at the gates and assist with parking, and they provide those agencies – like Rebecca Lodge, for example – with a little bit of money which the groups use to support their own charitable causes.”
Foote said finding people willing to volunteer their time to help run the event has also proved to be a challenge.
“The volunteer base is drastically reduced over the last five, 10 or 15 years,” he said.
“The younger people are working two or three jobs trying to make a living, and the older people, we’re getting a little long in the tooth. The idea of putting in 70 hours over three days is just not feasible anymore.”
“It takes key people on their feet going to deal with different issues that have arose during the course of the day and solving problems.”
Forster also recognized the contributions of the volunteers.
“These people are volunteers for the most part. They might have one or two paid people, but people volunteer hundreds of hours and do things to raise money in other ways because they’re not taking in enough at the gate to support the event,” she said.
The fair can trace its roots back to 1832 when an agricultural event was held on the farm and hotel owned by Ephriam Hopkins. The event grew into the Niagara Regional Exhibition in 1853, a year after the County of Welland was established.
Ravazzolo said this is the first time in recent history the NRE has been cancelled, and his father Raymond Sr. said in the 70 years he participated in the exhibition there has never been a cancellation.
Ravazzolo said the board never entertained the idea of cancelling the fair indefinitely, because it has been a large part of Niagara’s heritage.
“People seem to always want to go do something new, bulldozing over the past and history and that’s wrong.”
Ravazzolo said the changes to the exhibition will be kept under wraps until next year.
But Foote said the board is considering changes, such as adding a large flea market to the fair to raise money to help finance the agricultural portions of the event.
“We have to get proactive and we have to look at ways of getting the people in,” he said. “But it’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of volunteers.”
“We need key people who realize the value of what we have and also look at a clear road ahead to make it possible to bring this back to the region.”
Another Welland event held in September, the Niagara Food Festival, was cancelled earlier this year, as well.