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This year, the Cloverdale Country Fair in Surrey, B.C., will celebrate its 135th iteration — and an organizer says it will highlight its roots as an agricultural fair in the process.
The event was first started in 1888 as a fall fair to highlight the nearby agricultural community, according to the City of Surrey, and was originally held around a mile southwest of its current home.
It moved to its current location at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds 50 years later in 1938, the city says — and 30 years ago, in 1996, it joined up with the Cloverdale Rodeo event.
Both events are now held around the May long weekend, with organizers saying this year will feature a Thursday kickoff event that will be cheaper to attend, and a taste of things to come for the rest of the five-day fair.
Rick Hugh has been involved with the Cloverdale Fair for nearly six decades. (Sohrab Sandhu/CBC)
Rick Hugh said he first became involved with the event when he was 12 years old, helping to seat people in the grandstand nearly 60 years ago.
“We’re not reinventing everything, but we’re drawing from our rich history to create what we think this year is going to be an amazing event,” said Hugh, the first vice-president of the Cloverdale Rodeo and Exhibition Association.
The fair’s 135th edition comes this year, and not in 2023, because of COVID-19 pandemic-related closures in 2020 and 2021 and a closure due to venue repairs in 2022.
An image of attendees at what was then known as the Surrey Fall Fair in 1955. (City of Surrey Archives)
Hugh said the fair will be enlisting the support of local farmers to give families and children an opportunity to “get their hands in the dirt” and go home with something they can plant.
He said that is an intentional call back to its roots as an agricultural fair.
“If they don’t already know where their food, where their produce, where their eggs, where their milk comes from, this is going to be a great learning experience for those families,” he said.
Kathy Sheppard, the president of the Cloverdale Rodeo, said the fair is attempting to keep things affordable for families. (Sohrab Sandhu/CBC)
In addition to the regular country music acts and rodeo performances, this year will also feature two drone shows, according to festival organizers.
Kathy Sheppard, president of the Cloverdale Rodeo, said the opening day concert and cheaper kickoff event would extend the event by a day, so it now stretches over five days.
“The ask has been to help promote more of community within the City of Surrey. And so as an association, a group of volunteers, we’ve stepped up and we’ve come back with an extra day,” she said.
Sheppard said she’s hoping for more than 70,000 attendees at the fair this year, an increase over last year’s estimated attendance of 60,000.
Emily Fletcher, the general manager of The Henry Public House close to the Cloverdale Fairgrounds, said the fair is always a big driver of business in the immediate area. (Sohrab Sandhu/CBC)
Emily Fletcher, the general manager of The Henry Public House a few blocks from the Cloverdale Fairgrounds, said the rodeo and fair are among the first things people think of when it comes to the growing Cloverdale neighbourhood.
“As it continues to grow and the plans that they have for the future, I think it’ll only kind of highlight Cloverdale and put it on the map,” she said.
