Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Southpoint Sun - 3
President looking ahead to better days for Leamington Fair By Mark Ribble The 173-year history of the Leamington Fair has been interrupted before, but President Dan Wiper wants the community to know, they are “down, but not out.” Wiper’s comments came as he made the difficult announcement to once again, put plans on hold for this year’s Leamington Fair. Wiper, current President of the Leamington District Agricultural Society, points out that there still may be time to have a fair, but with the June 11-13 weekend fast approaching, it’s not feasible to expect to hold a fair on that weekend. However, he’s not ruling out the possibility of having something in the fall, should the COVID-19 pandemic quiet down enough to do it safely. “Never say never,” he said. “We could pull something together quickly if our amusement company was open to it.” The amusement company he speaks of, is World’s Finest Shows, whom the Agricultural Society contracted last year to run their midway. With the 2020 Leamington Fair put on the back burner, both the Agricultural Soci-
ety and World’s Finest were looking forward to bringing a bigger and better midway to Leamington in 2021 for the first time in many years. As the third wave of COVID has cancelled many 2021 fairs throughout the province, Wiper is hoping that maybe — just maybe — an open date might pop up later in the year. “I’m holding on to a sliver of hope,” he says. Meanwhile, it’s almost business as usual at the Leamington Fairgrounds, where the Agricultural Society has been the steward of the property for nearly 200 years. Contrary to what many may believe, the fairgrounds are not municipal property and the society gets no municipal funding — it’s fully run by volunteers. “We put our hearts and souls into this place,” Wiper said. The countless hours of grass cutting, maintenance and paperwork aren’t visible to those who attend the racetrack or fair once or twice a year. The group works hard to make sure things are kept up. They have recently installed new washroom facilities in the horse paddock and put a new roof on barn#1, keeping the
horse people comfortable, who use the grounds daily. Walking through the grounds, you can almost hear the roar of the demolition derby crowd and smell the midway’s fried onions and cotton candy. Wiper says, those sounds and smells will be back. “If not this year, then next year,” he says. “We like to see the joy on the kids’ faces.” As for the raceway, the Lakeshore Harness Racing Association still has their race dates booked from August through October this year and that group is waiting patiently for the government to re-open live harness racing. It’s currently on hold province-wide, but they did open it back up last year, just in time for Leamington Raceway to get started. Wiper says they are gradually getting the grandstand back to its former condition, after vandals broke some windows and seating over the winter. They are replacing all the planking in the seating area and the side windows on the upper grandstand. This follows a new roof that was installed last year. So things are looking ‘fair’ for the Leamington District Agricultural Society, and Wip-
er hopes — like everyone else — that life will get back to normal, so they can go forward
with their plans for the newlook Leamington Fair and its grounds.
Leamington District Agricultural Society President, Dan Wiper, at the Leamington Fairgrounds on Saturday, April 17. Wiper says the 2021 edition of the Leamington Fair is in jeopardy due to COVID restrictions, but the society is working hard to keep the grounds ready. Sun photo
