Share this Story: Agricultural trade show looks to 2022 after pandemic causes cancellation
Agricultural trade show looks to 2022 after pandemic causes cancellation
Peter Shokeir
The lineup of trucks, tractors, combines and other machinery was a sure sign something was going on inside the Fairview Arena with the NorthernLink Agriculture and Home Show filling the arena and Legion Hall with displays April 6, 2018. Photo by CHRIS EAKIN/FAIRVIEW POST
The Northernlink Ag, Home and Sport Show won't be getting its second go-around this year due to COVID-19 with organizers now looking to the next show in 2022.
Organizers first decided to postpone the event in search of another date before ultimately announcing the cancellation on April 9.
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"That's mainly due to a lack of weekends that our volunteers are available," said organizer Bryarly Parker. "Being farmers and producers, there's probably not a lot of options."
Hosted by the Friedenstal Historical Society, the trade show was originally scheduled from April 2-4 at the Fairview Arena. Parker described April as a tried-and-true month for holding the event with uncertainty around other timeslots.
"There's probably one or two (weekends) in August that they could do and the rest would lead us into November," she said, noting that November already had a large farm show running down in Red Deer while also having cold and unpredictable weather.
"To be quite honest, this pandemic is unpredictable too, so we just didn't even know if August would even be feasible."
The 2020 Clear Hills County Agricultural Trade Show has also been cancelled, while the Foster's Peace Country Classic Agri-Show south of Grande Prairie was cut short by two days last month due to COVID-19.
The Northernlink Ag, Home and Sport Show held its first event in 2018 with a focus on agriculture and home-based businesses.
According to Parker, the Friedenstal Historical Society, which is largely composed of farmers and producers, had felt the need to bring back an agricultural trade show to Fairview to replace a past one that is now defunct.
In order not to compete with the biennial Smokey River Agricultural Tradeshow in Falher, the society decided to also make its show biennial and run it every second year.
Parker noted that this year's Northernlink Ag, Home and Sport Show would have expanded to include sports and recreation in order to appeal to a wider crowd.
As the society already had to pay for some advertising, Parker added this cancellation would strain the group.
"The pandemic had shut everything down about two-and-a-half weeks before the show was supposed to be on," she said.
"There's still bills to be paid, so that definitely hurts the group, and it's a little stressful to try to figure out if everything is going to be okay."
A majority of exhibitors, however, have already committed to the next show with some even allowing the society to keep the money as credit for 2022.
"That's been really promising, so it's not like they won't be back, and it's definitely been a good response from those exhibitors," Parker said.
"That's a really nice thing, especially for our small town, to have exhibitors from large companies that say how excited they are about our show."