The event that marked the last in-person agricultural fair put on by the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba pre-pandemic will also be the one to kick things back off next week.
The exhibition is moving ahead with in-person plans for Ag Ex, typically the final of three fairs hosted annually at Brandon’s Keystone Centre and one largely focused on the cattle sector. The fair will run Oct. 27-30, the organization has said, and will again have a full docket of cattle shows as well as a return of MooMania!, an agricultural education program geared for Grade 3-5 students. The event is marketed as the province’s largest all-breed show and, in previous years, typically hosts at least one national breed show annually.
“Cattle producers are looking forward to this year’s show,” Cattle show and Ag Ex committee co-chair Dallas Johnston said.
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Breed shows this year will be supplemented with a jackpot heifer show, bull show, and junior shows, all leading up to the “Supreme Breed Extravaganza,” with winners earning a ticket to the Canadian Western Agribition. That show is slated to run in Regina Nov. 22-27.
It will be the first time since Ag Ex 2019 that the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba has been able to hold an in-person ag fair. In March 2020, the organization was forced to cancel their Royal Manitoba Winter Fair at the last minute with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The exhibition’s three annual fairs—The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in March, Manitoba Summer Fair in June and Ag Ex in October—made up the bulk of revenue pre-pandemic, and the loss hit hard at the organization’s coffers, despite efforts to supplement finances with a series of smaller scale events and fundraisers.
Earlier this summer, the exhibition announced it was planning for a return to in-person, large-scale events with Ag Ex 2021, conditional to public health orders. The organization was also able to host a midway in September on the Keystone Centre grounds.
“We’re really excited about next week,” exhibition president Greg Crisanti said in a recent release. “An event of this size takes a great deal of time and planning and both the staff and volunteers have been working hard in order to make this event happen.”
“We’re looking forward to bringing people together once again and celebrating the resilience of Manitoba’s agricultural community,” he also said.
Visitors will have to be fully vaccinated and show proof of vaccination.
