Royal Manitoba Winter Fair returns in Brandon after 2-year hiatus

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair returned to the Keystone Centre in Brandon on Monday.

Before 2020, the fair — which began in 1906 and is one of only two fairs in Canada to have royal designation — had only been cancelled twice. It was cancelled once during the First World War, and once during a livestock outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 1952.

Wayne Buhr is co-chair of the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, the non-profit organization that hosts the fair. He said the event brings in 100,000 people over the course of six days, with many coming to Brandon from around the country.

"For a lot of them, this [is] their family reunion week," Buhr said.

The fair offers visitors opportunities to interact with farm animals up close, watch shows in the arena, and even see a full-size cow calving demonstration.

"It's probably one of the best places in Manitoba — in Western Canada — to talk directly to producers and learn about [the agriculture] industry," Buhr said.

Dayle Hughson is now part of the board of directors at Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba. But before that, she and her family had a long history with the winter fair.

"I started coming to the fair when I was just a young child. I'm much older now. I've been coming every year that they've had it," Hughson said.

"Pretty much all my family has come here and gone through the fair, and works and volunteers. It's a family kind of thing." 

For Ontario horse trick rider and bullwhip artist Alyssa Remenda, the winter fair is her first event since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said she's seen people get more interested in horses and even start learning about trick riding after seeing her shows.

"There's a little girl who saw us and she got so excited. I always take [that] home with me. I never forget people that I've seen. It's just something you never forget," Renenda said.

Amanda Orgeron and her daughter were among those who attended the first fair since 2020.

"We decided to come check out the animals," Orgeron said. 

"[We learned to] be careful with your fingers."

Festival organizers say giving back to the community is also part of the heart of the event.

Among the fair's events is a pork-quality competition. Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba partners with East 40 Packers to donate the non-winning pork carcasses to local food banks.

The event is also an economic driver for Manitoba's second-largest city, says Buhr, with hotels and restaurants in Brandon seeing an increase in traffic during the event.

It's also an opportunity for the agriculture industry in Western Canada to reach consumers directly, promote businesses and teach the importance of agriculture, he said.

"If we didn't have agriculture, we would not be eating," said Hughson.

"So all these farmers put the food on the table for the whole country and for a lot of other countries, too, because we export a lot."

The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair runs until Saturday.