Sarah Eaman 

Brome Fair got back to business after the two year COVID hiatus and the people were ready. With great enthusiasm and excitement Brome Fair staff welcomed a reported 40,000 visitors over the four-day event, with 10,000 visiting Friday alone. The 2016 attendance of 48,000 still holds the record for the largest crowd. While no records were broken this year, the queue for parking and the long wait times for both food and rides once you got inside could make you think differently. 

To counter this temporary annoyance, the new addition of the Winslow Dancers was able to help everyone stomp and strut their worries away with line dancing, which began on Friday night. Another first was the addition of the Canadian Heritage breed of cow known as the ‘Canadienne’ to the dairy cattle competition. With no poultry entries allowed this year, there was instead an educational agricultural workshop aimed at children. 

There were fewer kiosks than at the last fair in 2019, due primarily to staffing issues, however, many of the regulars were still there. Price increases were to be expected, but many were surprised by the rising cost of the popular Blooming Onion. 

Nothing could dampen the overall feeling that people were happy to be back at the fair; not the line-ups, the crowds, the weather. After all… it’s kind of what the Brome Fair is all about.