Enjoy the various activities at the 161st Arthur Fall Fair, Sept. 7 to 10.
The Arthur Agricultural Society wants you to join them in celebrating this year’s milestones.
The theme this year is “Milestones: Celebrating Canada’s 150th and Wellington County 4-H’s 100th.”
With four days of activities, there’s something for everyone.
Kicking off the weekend is the Kick Off Beef Barbecue held on Sept. 7 from 5 to 7:30pm.
Tickets are $14 for adults and $6 for children ages 6 to 12. Children 5 and under are free.
Kids will also have the chance to get up close and personal with big equipment, tractors and trucks at the Arthur Motors and Machines show held from 6 to 8pm on Thursday.
On Friday at 7pm, catch the fall fair parade starting at the St. John Church parking lot and heading up Main Street to the Arthur fairgrounds.
Other Friday night events include remote car racing, a heavy horse demo and youth dance. New this year is the tractor challenge.
“We’re trying to get 150 garden lawn tractors, regular tractors, any kind basically on the grounds to help us celebrate our theme of milestones,” said one of the fair’s organizers Jenn Bodz.
“This is Canada’s 150th birthday so we thought maybe we would try to get 150 tractors to come to the fair,” added tractor challenge organizer Charlie Twiss.
The challenge is open to tractors of all sizes and colours, as well as lawn and farm tractors.
“They don’t have to be all shiny and wonderful looking, they can be everyday working tractors or tractors that are in the shed as long as they run,” said Twiss.
Anyone interested in joining can contact Twiss at 519-848-3998.
Tractors should be registered on or before Sept. 8.
“It’s just something different, I haven’t heard of another fair that wanted to do it,” said Twiss.
Also new this year is a kids power wheels demolition derby held at 11:30am on Sept 10.
“The kids have to bring their power wheels, little trucks, or whatever and they have a balloon on the front, and they have to drive around in the pit and smash the balloon,” explained Bodz. “Once the balloon is popped, they are out.”
Another new event is the R&R Pet Paradise super paws performance playing at 11am and 2pm on Sunday.
The fair kicks off in high gear on Saturday with livestock exhibits, pony shows, 4-H shows, baby show, chili cook-off, a fire department display and more.
Kids can explore animals at the Party Safari show at 1pm on Saturday.
“There’s something for everyone to do, be it participating in the exhibiting part, or participating in demonstrations or playing with the different activities,” said Bodz.
Attendees can cheer on their favourite driver at the lawn and garden tractor pull at 6pm on Saturday or the kids pedal tractor pull at 12pm on Sunday.
All-weekend events include: inflatables, “let’s talk science” activity booth by University of Guelph, and scavenger hunt activities.
“New visitors would probably be really intrigued by our displays inside as well too,” said Bodz.
Exhibits include vegetables, fruits and herbs, plants and flowers, domestic baking, bread, butter tarts, preserves, antiques, crafts and quilts, photographs and more.
Don’t miss the crowning of the 2017-18 ambassadors at 2:45pm on Sunday.
“It’s a great time and a reasonable price to get in and lots of activities happening for everybody,” said Bodz.
The cost of admission is $5 for adults and children 12 and under are free. A weekend pass is $10.
