Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Hay River (Sep 05/05) - The Hay River Fall Fair - an event which attracted hundreds of participants in the past - will not be held this year.

"I'm disappointed there isn't one this year," said Evellyn Coleman, executive director of the Territorial Farmer's Association, which organized the event.

Farmer Leonard Anderman, showing off a tasty-looking cucumber, was sorry to hear the Hay River Fall Fair won't be happening this year. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Coleman said a change in federal programs cut off funding for the fair and the association doesn't want to limit the event to a single community.

The new Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Foods program, which came into effect late last year, doesn't have money for a fall fair.

"It's not as flexible," she said.

The association also feels, as a territorial body, it should not sponsor a fall fair in only one community and doesn't want to be perceived as a Hay River-only organization, Coleman said.

The Hay River Fall Fair was held in conjunction with the Great Northwest Trade Show, which this year is set for Sept. 10-11.

Fair participants displayed and sold vegetables, arts and crafts, baking and canned goods, and entered their work in competitions.

Coleman hasn't heard much public reaction to the fair's cancellation.

"I think people like it when it happens," she said, adding, "I don't know there'll be a lot of reaction when it doesn't happen."

Coleman and two other women, including former association president Ruth Boden, discussed forming a separate committee to organize a fair this year.

"We felt the fall fair was worth doing," Coleman said, noting that they just ran out of time to make it happen. They are thinking of making it a fall fair day, and involving other groups, such as the public library, to add a book and bake sale to the event.

Not possible

The farmers also contacted the Hay River Horticultural Society to see if it was interested in taking on the fall fair, but it wasn't.

June Eirikson, horticultural society president, said her group started the fair in 1977 and ran it until the late 1990s.

The fair was suspended for several years, until the association revived it.

Eirikson said the society runs "Hay River in Bloom" and doesn't have the resources to organize the fair.

"Our group is getting smaller all the time," she said.

Eirikson is sad the fair will not happen this year.

"I think it is important," she said, adding that it's an opportunity for the community to get together.

Leonard Anderman, a Hay River farmer, is also sad to see the fall fair dropped.

Anderman said small-scale farmers earned as much as 10 per cent of their annual income from sales during the fall fair.

"I sold everything you could think of," the retired guide said, mentioning potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and cabbage.

Anderman thinks the fair is not going ahead because a few people did all the work and they just ran out of energy.