Maberly Fair – lots of horses and politicians

Jeff Green | Sep 01, 2011

The “Everything Maple” theme sparked a number of well-executed woodsy floats in the parade at the start of the 129th Maberly Fair, and the Patterson family float took top honours this year.

The opening ceremonies, on a brilliantly sunny warm August morning, featured more than the usual number of speakers. In addition to the local councilors, the Tay Valley Township reeve and Lanark County warden, the presidents of the Lanark County Federation of Agriculture and Cattlemen’s Association also brought greetings. Then came three candidates in the upcoming provincial election, Nancy Matte from the Green Party, sitting MPP Randy Hiller from the Conservative Party, and Liberal Party candidate Bill MacDonald.

“Any one else?” asked the MC when all the speakers were done, as a modest crowd looked on from the grandstand.

With the dignitaries out of the way, the horse show, which had started earlier in the morning, returned to the main ring for the finals.

Organisers were delighted with the number of horses in the show this year, a marked increase from recent years, even if it made the show run longer and caused a bit of scrambling to get all the scheduled activities of the busy one-day fair completed by the time the fair supper was served at 4:30.

Crowds milled about the fair market, nicknamed Diagon alley, watched the Carleton Place Pipe band, an excellent poultry show, and the two signature Maberly Fair events of recent years, the zucchini races and the cow flop contest.

The fair’s convenor, Sylvia Bumstead, along with a dedicated group of volunteers from the Maberly Agricultural Society, brought the entire day off without a hitch.