The Westlock Ag Society celebrated its 100th birthday in style last weekend with the 100th Annual Westlock & District Ag Fair.
Society president Bob Jones said the celebration was a fitting way to ring in the organization’s centennial, especially with several new events going on this year, including the lumberjack demonstration, the dress-up event on Saturday and of course a magnificent fireworks display.
Like any event of this magnitude there are bound to be a few hiccups throughout the weekend, but he said this year there weren’t as many as would be expected.
“The only little glitch we’ve had is the power plant went out, and apart from that everything’s running well,” he said. “Even the weather man is cooperating.”
The generator on the midway broke down late Friday afternoon, leaving ride-seekers disappointed until things got fixed up in the early evening. But in one way, that was a blessing in disguise.
“For anybody that bought the (unlimited ride) wristbands, they were honoured on Saturday from 11 to 2, and actually some people with small kids were happier with that,” Jones said.
He was quick to put the credit for a well-run event squarely with the hundreds of volunteers who came down for the weekend and gave a bit of their time to make sure the fair went off without a hitch.
“I would say probably at least 200 volunteers or maybe more are needed to put on a normal fair, and this year with all the extras I would say there’s close to 300 or maybe more to put the fair on.”
Westlock mayor Ralph Leriger said that, from his point of view, the real highlight of the fair was the sense of community spirit it brought out — a spirit reminiscent of the kind of community spirit needed a century ago.
“Community was everything — building their first schools and building a community hall and things like that,” he said. “The community then relied on each other to survive.”
While his own memories don’t go back a century, when he recalls the Westlock fair of his childhood there’s not much that’s changed.
“I loved going to the midway, but in those days I recall the biggest carrot, the biggest potato and the nicest petunias was a much bigger deal,” he said. “We still have those displays, but it was a much bigger deal then because our roots were so firmly bound in agriculture.”
Jones also said there is somewhat less emphasis on the agricultural aspect of the fair, but not significantly so.
In fact, the most significant change in his 47 years with the society has been obtaining the land — before that they relied on space in the old provincial building.
He echoed the sentiment that the fair is a great way to bring out the community spirit, especially in the way it tends to erase the municipal boundaries.
“It brings the town and the country people together,” he said, noting there is sometimes some animosity. “At the fair everybody comes together.”
As for the future, Jones said he doesn’t expect much to change significantly in the way the fair is run.
The odd new event pops up, and things occasionally need to be replace but all in all if it isn’t broken it doesn’t need to be fixed.
“We’re going to do some renovations on the beef ring; we’re going to revamp that,” he said. “
It will be things like that — we’ll do little things as we can afford it but I can’t see anything major right away.”
The biggest challenge facing the society and the fair for the next 100 years will be getting enough volunteers together to keep the society strong.
“We have a great volunteer group; the only trouble is we’re all having birthdays every year,” he said.
Leriger noted there are about 50 not-for-profit groups in the area, and they could look to the possibility of working together to keep this event strong. Nonetheless, he said the ag society volunteers should be lauded for their hard work.
“They should all be congratulated for their significant effort,” he said. “They threw a great party.”
