General News

159th annual Caledon Fair where the town’s rural roots run deep

June 13, 2019   ·   0 Comments

Written By JULIA LLOYD

This past weekend marked the 159th annual Caledon Fair with tons of events, amusement rides, food and prizes. 

History tells us that fairs started across the country while it was becoming colonized by settlers, as a way of encouraging improvements, education and productivity of all aspects of agriculture. 

This particular fair has been running in the Caledon area since the late 1800s, during the time of Queen Victoria. 

But, colonization occurred hundreds of years ago, so why is the town continuing with putting on the event?

Ed Taccone was the president of the Caledon fair back in 2004, but earlier this year he decided to return back into his presidential role. 

“Well, I keep in touch with the people that I became friends with and I just wanted to come back because it is a hard position to fill, you don’t automatically get volunteers to take on the task.” Explained Taccone. 

Taccone said that without the fair, Caledon’s community would suffer. 

“We get people visiting the fair from outside of Caledon, which helps supports our community and does an excellent job in bringing our community even closer. The fair also provides support when non-locals come and drive around Caledon and buy fuel, Tim Horton’s, just anything, and all that money is put back into our beautiful town,” he said.

The event was held at the Caledon Village Fair Grounds from June 7 to 9. The theme was “Rural Roots Run Deep,” and some of the events included, a British classic car show, lawn and tractor pulls, pony rides, a petting zoo and so much more. 

“I just love seeing the kids smile,” Mike Davidson said, a supervisor for one of the carnival games. Davidson said he’s only been involved with the fair for two years but each year seems to get busier. 

“Dad look at the animals,” Noelle exclaimed, bursting with excitement. She was standing by the petting zoo on her tippy toes so she could see over the fence. Her brother, Marcellus, was also very interested in the animals until one of them made a noise that scared him. 

Many people don’t know what noises goats make and have the potential of scaring children, even adults. 

Over on the midway, one of the rides was a huge blue slide, where the kids had to sit on big potato bags to gain speed going down. One of the little girls named Audrey went up and down that slide over a dozen times and each time her face was beaming with happiness. 

The man running the ride, Brent Welch was laughing and smiling and seemed to be having tons of fun watching Audrey go down the slide. 

“Is this your favourite ride?” he asked the little girl. She was shy and her cheeks got red, but she giggled and said, “Yes and the bouncy council.” 

Oh of course, that’s the best ride, laughed Welch.  

Welch is a veteran when it comes to carnivals, he said. He has been working with all different carnival companies all over Ontario. 

“I am a true lifelong carny, I have worked for Fairmont Amusement, Maple City Shows, Campbell Amusement, and so many more.” Said Welch. “I wouldn’t trade this job for anything in the world, it’s the only job that offers me total freedom.” Smiled Welch.” 

At the British Car show, one gentleman was all set up with umbrellas and chairs to sit with some friends beside his classic car — a 1953 Rolls Royce, model: Silver Dawn. His name was Paul Dullaert from Kitchener. 

Dullaert said he particularly loves his Rolls Royce because of the colour scheme. However, his favourite type of car shows are the ones where they are actually driving them around. 

Over in tent A, Calabasas Acres from just down the road came and volunteered their time at the fair to teach younger children about agriculture. In the tent there were four baby goats, roughly 10 baby ducks and five energetic puppies. 

One of the volunteers, Anne Griffiths, from the farm had a baby goat in her arms and was walking around the fair. 

“We are from the farm just down the road and these goats are for our farm fresh program that we run.” Said Griffiths. “Our program is all about bringing kids to the farm to see where animals come from, learn about how they are raised and touch and pet them.” 

The fair turned out be a success and hopefully will be ever more of a success next year in 2020, Taccone said.



         

Facebooktwittermail


Readers Comments (0)


Sorry, comments are closed on this post.

Page Reader Press Enter to Read Page Content Out Loud Press Enter to Pause or Restart Reading Page Content Out Loud Press Enter to Stop Reading Page Content Out Loud Screen Reader Support
Page Reader Press Enter to Read Page Content Out Loud Press Enter to Pause or Restart Reading Page Content Out Loud Press Enter to Stop Reading Page Content Out Loud Screen Reader Support