To be sure, you see families with children flocking through the corridors of the Keystone Centre. It’s a family event. General Manager of the Provincial Exhibition, Mark Humphries, says this is all made possible by volunteers, many of whom are also following generations of family tradition.
This is the first winter fair with Humphries, a businessman from the RM of Wallace-Woodworth, to take the helm.
By the time the winter fair rolled around on March 27 – April 1, there were a few new things and a sense of fun about the place.
“Looking back, it’s a blur,” says Humphries. “It takes a week to move all that we have. Whether it’s show jumps, flowers, panels... the list is endless. So, it takes a full staff and a team of volunteers and some extra staff to ship it all in (to the Keystone Centre).”
With the trade show, animal exhibitors, educational displays, food vendors, entertainment shows, and this year a merry-go-round and a water bubble kid’s event (both new), Humphries calls the fair “a marvellous, many-faceted machine.” He says, “It was fascinating to watch it all evolve; a steep learning curve".
Along with a hard-working team of nine staff, there’s an underside of this quilt where the 39 directors and other volunteers busily work.
“There were probably a hundred volunteers each day working around that fair. They come in from the Brandon area. People giving out brochures … to helping with the jumps, that sort of thing.
“Some have been working at the fair for decades,” says Humphries, “Families have passed down through generations, some of the grandparents are still there, sons and daughters taking up the gauntlet and grandkids as well. In a couple of the settings, we have two and three generations volunteering.”
The barns, displays and food vendors stretch from end to end of the Keystone Centre. Humphries was happy to find shortcuts through the labyrinth of corridors and rooms. “We’re doing about 20 -25 km per day… you’ve earned your fair food by the end of the day. A few shortcuts that I never knew existed came in quite handy. By Wednesday I got most of those down.”
Show jumping is always a key event in the main arena, and for the Humphries family, fair week 2023 was a role reversal.
“Jill was at home minding the greenhouse business. Usually, I’m at home, while the girls are competing, because they’ve competed for the last 10-plus years at the winter fair – Jill and Jess – and I’m left at home guarding the shop.”
It was only a slight surprise to see a suited Humphries, well-known locally as a stage musician with a keen sense of humour, finding a little extra fun for himself (and others) as he strode around the main arena during a segue in the evening performances, firing a t-shirt cannon into the audience.
“It had more power than we thought it should have,” Humphries commented. “We got one up into the commentary box (high above the ring) one night, which Kelly (show jumping commentator) caught and dropped over to the kids. And we managed to get one into the ladies washroom… up against the door while someone was in there. She was delighted to get the t-shirt, but she wondered what the heck was going on…”
On the big screen above the arena, you never knew when you might see a friend, neighbour, or a local pastor captured in a video from the petting zoo answering the “Would you kiss a horse?” question. “Not on the lips,” said one grandfather.
Although, at the time of this interview, all the numbers weren’t yet tallied after this busy week, Humphries said the attendance was trending up from last year. He said everyone knew their job and the Provincial Exhibition ran like clockwork throughout the week because of committed volunteers and fairgoers, “it’s really humbling to see it.”
