In recent years, The Western Fair has been a little tired. We always go, but it just hasn’t had the zip and zest of years past. The first thing you’d see when you walked through the gates were hot tubs and bedsheet vendors. The midway was small and the rides pretty run-of-the-mill. I don’t even ride on rides anymore and I noticed the descent.Â
That’s all changed. The Western Fair dropped Conklin Shows and brought on a new midway and ride company. It’s bright, clean, bigger and there are rides this part of Ontario has never seen before. Some you’d have to go to Canada’s Wonderland or the CNE to experience, until now.
The weather was kind of crummy on Saturday night, but the Fair was hopping. Long lines snaked around the new, thrilling rides, like the roller coaster whose buckets turn and twist as they roll. And Niagara Falls, a roller coaster in water. There are zipping, flying, soaring and dropping rides, too, and more of them. There’s more food, less blatant selling and more space devoted to typical country fair stuff like quilts and photographs and crafts made by imaginative kids.
This year’s deep-fried specialities include poutine balls. Derek is more than just a bacon man. He passed on the bacon wrapped grilled cheese and went for the poutine balls instead.
He pronounced them delicious. They’re mashed potatoes rolled in a coating and deep fried, sprinkled with chopped cheese and slathered in hot gravy. I declined a taste.
The only fair food I really like is a caramel apple. Having lost a tooth veneer to one last year, I brought the apple home and ate it with a knife and fork!
My other love at the fair is the animals. The baby lambs were the highlight. I asked Derek to create a diversion so I could take off with one, but he refused. I imagined myself with a lamb in my arms, sprinting out of the Agriplex yelling, “start the car!” like the crazed woman in an old Ikea commerical. I suppose he didn’t have bail money on him.
We also spoke at length to an egg farmer, but that’s a story for another day. There were ponies and llamas and pigs and horses but, sadly, no teacup pigs this year.
I’m betting attendance to the Western Fair will be up this year once word gets out about how much it has improved and how much more there is to do, especially for those who don’t get motion sickness on a simple swing.
Thank you for sparing us the “lamb on the lam” headline. Glad it was such fun. What a rotten weekend weather-wise – glad people were out making the most of it!