The 71 Annual Lakes District Fall Fair presented by the Lakes District Fall Fair Association is set to kick off this Sept. 5-7 at the fairgrounds at the Eagle Creek Recreation Commission site.
As it has the previous 10 years, this years’ fall fair will feature a music festival portion, and the festival lineup is stacked with local talent once again.
Among the local acts that will perform at the festival, on the Saturday and Sunday of the fair include, the Burns Lake Highland Dancers, Lake Babine Nation Hereditary Chiefs Drum Group, the Tweedsmuir Fiddlers, Larry Aspen, George Hamp and Mike Robertson.
Richard Cannon, President of the Lakes District Fall Fair Association, says that since he introduced the music festival portion to the annual fall fair 10 years ago, that it has really come to have a strong influence on festival goers.
“I introduced it because music is always a good aspect to have,” Cannon said, “It puts people in a relaxing mode and it just has a strong tradition in this area.”
John and Sandra Barth of the Lakes District Arts Council have been volunteering for the fall fair association for the last 10 years, helping to organize and finalize the list of performers, and determining the final set lists and times.
John says that they’ll start sending out emails and contacting past performers around the second week of January to gauge the interest of performers who might want to return to the fair.
By the end of March, six months before the fall fair is held the lineup for the music festival portion is set, and both John and Sandra work on fine tuning the details.
By the end of June the lineup and sets for all the musical acts at the fall fair are set.
“It really is a year long process, a couple months to catch our breath in the late fall and early winter and then right around Christmas we start in again and that is typical for all of the volunteers for the various aspects of the fall fair,” John said, ” It’s a three day event but it takes pretty much nine to 10 months of concentrated efforts to organize the fair and have it ready for the first weekend in September.”
Many of the acts that take to the stage at the fall fair are repeat performers.
They have become favourites of the fall fair organizers and favourites of the fall fair’s audiences.
Others are selected because they are popular performers in the Lakes District community.
Again, the goal is to provide a variety of performances with the emphasis on local talent being showcased.
Barth says that one of the problems that him and Sandra run into each year is that there are always more people wanting to perform at the fair than he has slots for, a good problem to have, but one that leads to tough decisions.
“There’s a lot of good performers in our local community and people who like to get up and perform for their neighbours and friends,” Barth said, “We never have a problem filling spots.”
Bev Hughes who runs the Burns Lake Highland Dancers says that her students have been performing at the fall fair on and off for about 20 years, and sees no reason why that will change anytime soon.
The highland dancers to a lot of competing, in high stress situations year round, and the fall fair is an opportunity to perform for the community and just have fun.
“When we dance at the fall fair, on Canada Day or when we put on a recital in town it is strictly for fun,” Hughes said, “The dancers just really enjoy performing, they love it.”
Barth encourages people to come out and enjoy the performances and all that the fall fair has to offer because it’s such a family friendly event.
“It’s a great community celebration,” Barth said, “I love to be a part of it.”
