Popular Norwood Fair is community at its finest
Another successful year for major agricultural event
Thanksgiving can mean a lot of things to people. For the small town of Norwood just east of Peterborough, the Thanksgiving weekend is dominated by one thing: the Norwood Fair.
The annual fair has been part of the community fabric for more than 150 years. What started as a small gathering of local farmers and villagers in the mid-1800s has evolved into a worldclass event that attracts tens of thousands of visitors from across Ontario, Quebec, the U.S. and beyond; quite an accomplishment for a town that isn’t even listed on the local television’s weather map.
This year was an excellent year for the fair. Despite Mother Nature providing a soggy Saturday, she did rally for us and turned on the sun for Sunday and Monday. Nice weather combined with the fair’s amazing variety of events and attractions brought near-record setting numbers through the fair gates over the weekend.
Exhibits in all areas were all of the high quality that the fair is renowned for. Outside the same quality and pride was also obvious in the many animal shows and competitions. In spite of the rain the Saturday classic car show was a hit with vehicles coming from far and wide.
Old and familiar standbys such as the heavy horse draw, antique tractors, EIEIO petting barn, and the Lawn Mower Races all continued to be crowd pleasers drawing large crowds of spectators.
The sheep dog demonstrations and sheep shearing demonstrations both continue to be very popular, attracting large audiences for each performance. Local, provincial and federal government officials spoke during the opening ceremonies, congratulating the phenomenal volunteers who come together every year to organize the fair.
Joan and Bruce Payne officially cut the ribbon to open the fair this year. This amazing couple has the same association to the Norwood Fair that the Maple Leaf has to Canada. They are such an integral part that it just wouldn’t be what it is without them. A longtime fair supporter and volunteer, Joan started in homecraft, and now, among other things, oversees the vendors in and around the curling and exhibition building, “with a fair but iron fist” as I heard one vendor comment.
Her husband Bruce’s passion is horses and you will find him helping with the horse draws every fair, during the year he is a valuable asset and can be found helping to maintain the grounds and buildings.
This year’s theme was “Scarecrows and Fence Rows,” which provided for a lot of creative displays entries. Inside the Curling Club there was a very tall scarecrow welcoming the fairgoer, this big guy was part of the fairs popular annual guess the weight contest. The committee in charge will be a little while going through the thousands of entries.
It is a truly amazing group of several hundreds of people who come from all walks of life and from all neighbouring towns and villages whose cumulative efforts make the fair happen every year. The fair is “the heart of the community” as fair president Kerstin Walsh put it. However it is the heart and dedication of that community of volunteers that make it that way.