By Adam Donnelly

68th edition of North Thompson Fall Fair and Rodeo is a family event

Sep 5, 2017 | 12:27 PM

BARRIERE, BC — For the past 7 decades, the North Thompson Fall Fair and Rodeo in Barriere has been drawing crowds from up and down the Thompson Valley. This year, organizers estimate 10,000 fair goers passed through the gates of the Fair, and while many come for the tasty fair treats, or to get a look at the agricultural exhibits, there’s one staple event that keeps people coming back year after year.

The North Thompson Fall Fair is certainly the signature event for the community of Barriere. According to Jill Hayward, the President of the North Thompson Fall Fair Association, people come from all around to experience the event.

“We’ve had people here from Switzerland, and Germany, and England, and Kamloops and Barriere,” Hayward explained. “People make it kind of their annual reunion with their family or their tourist stop. It’s just wonderful.”  

Every Labour Day long weekend, thousands of North Thompson Valley residents, as well visitors to the area come through the gates of the fair to take part in the 4-H competitions, enjoys some tasty fair treats, or just enjoy the small town hospitality of the event; no matter where you eat, or if your zucchini wins first place, or gets no ribbon at all – one of the main attractions of the fair, as always, is the rodeo

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According to long-time rodeo announcer Jay Savage, the rodeo is an opportunity for those hard working ranchers to take some time off and let loose.

“We get a chance to compete, we get a chance to come out and have some fun, do what we love to do and be around friends and good people,” Savage told CFJC Today.

Whether you watch the rodeo for the action, or because you enjoy watching people working with, or struggling to stay on an animal, all the competitors used the same word to describe the rodeo community: family.

“This particular event is a bit of a tradition in BC,” Savage explained. “We all kind of gather here on the long weekend, people that have competed many, many years ago. It’s not uncommon to see three, four, even five generations of families here.”

That sense of family is why events like the North Thompson Fall Fair and Rodeo are still going, 68 years on.

“It was kind of like a big family reunion, where everyone came out,” Hayward said. “It’s morphed into something where we now have 10,000 people coming through the gate.”