Stampeding on in Virgil, after 52 years
Keeping a community event vibrant for decades can be a challenge, but it’s something the Virgil Business Association is managing to accomplish.
Business Association vicepresident Cory Abt said the key to keeping crowds coming back to the Virgil Stampede every Victoria Day weekend could be knowing what changes to implement, and others to avoid.
“We’ll keep trying new stuff. We’re planning new stuff and everything else for the whole family,” Abt said Sunday morning.
New generations are embracing the event that has been running annually since the late
1960s, raising money to support recreational facilities and sports programs in the community.
Abt said at least 6,000 people typically arrive Monday night for the fireworks display. And when events like the demolition derby are held, he said, grandstands are full and hundreds more people are gathered around standing to watch.
While it remains a “local event” at its core, the Virgil Stampede draws visitors from across Niagara, and beyond.
“They come from all over.”
One recent change the community seems to have embraced was the decision to open the event on Sunday — ending 47 years of only running it on Saturday and holiday Monday.
“We don’t charge admission for the park on Sunday. It’s family day,” Abt said.
“This is supposed to be our slow day, but we’re filling up,” he added, while watching crowds of people gather in the midway.
Some changes the association members opted against introducing might have helped sustain the Virgil Stampede, too.
“I think one of the things that has saved us is we haven’t brought alcohol in,” Abt said.
It’s something the association considered about five years ago — until the organization’s members asked for advice from people involved in the event industry, including Homeniuk Rides Inc., which has run the midway at the Virgil Stampede for decades.
While it’s tempting to add alcohol sales to the event with so many local brewers in the area, “it changes the whole dynamic.”
The event is geared towards young families “having fun.”
“If you start changing the dynamic … it’s not a community event anymore,” Abt said.
Other changes the association tried in the past haven’t worked as well. For instance, the association tried setting up vendors in the arena a few years ago, turning the vendors market into a home and garden show.
“It was horrible,” Abt said. “Our idea was that the adults would want to in to something like that while their kids were out here playing. But the end result — the post-mortem — was that adults want to be out here with their kids. It was a perception thing that didn’t pan out, so we didn’t do it again.”
Although Saturday’s thunderstorms led to a delayed start for the market, Abt said vendors returned Sunday morning to set up their tents under the blue sky.
“I was talking to the bath bomb person this morning and said that would be a little nasty to have it rain on your bath bombs,” Abt said with a laugh. “There’d be a fizzy mess everywhere.”
The weather kept crowds at bay on Saturday, but Abt was confident that the clear skies throughout the rest of the weekend would make up for it.
Although Sunday is typically the slowest day of the three-day event, he said the midway was quickly filling with excited families who might have opted against visiting the attraction a day earlier.
“This is beautiful. This is fantastic. We’re happy — especially after yesterday.”
Abt said younger generations are also now pitching in to help run the event, in addition to just enjoying the rides. And that, too, helps ensure the event’s longevity.
“They’re local kids. They’re parents have been doing this for years and now they’re starting to do it and they’re taking over.”