The Olde Tyme Country Fair

The Niverville Olde Tyme Country Fair is SouthEastern Manitoba's premier summer event. Starting on Friday night when Main Street is shut down to vehicle traffic for a meet and mingle party, the fair promises a good time for young and old. Food sampling booths, classic car show-n-shine, midway, and live bands are just some of the attractions. Saturday continues the street celebration with flea markets, the parade and stage performances from our country's finest such as Brett Butt from 2007. Party on through Saturday but don't miss the large open air church service on Main Street Sunday morning and the BBQ chicken dinner that follows. For more information on this year's fair, check out the fair website at nivervillefair.com.

For those of us who grew up in Niverville in the 60's, 70's and 80's the Fair was a predictable annual August event. For some reason or another, it dwindled away in the early 90's we had no fair at all for several years.

Finally, in early 1996 a small group of interested people called a "town hall" type of community meeting, to try and re-establish the Fair. The well attended meeting produced a small committee to address the task.

An invitation was put out for suggestions on re-naming the Fair. Many new ideas were received and after a vote the outcome was 'The Niverville Olde Tyme Country Fair'.

Additionally it was decided to give the revived fair a completely fresh start by hosting it in June rather than August, theorizing that at any given time in August, many families are away on summer holidays, camping or enjoying other seasonal activities. It has been estimated that during the summer months at least one quarter of the town's population is away from town at any given time.

Other topics of discussion considered were, that we would miss conflicting with the harvest season if the fair was moved to June, and we could benefit from longer hours of daylight as well. Of course, we would like to believe the mosquitoes have not reached their full potential in early June either! It was a unanimous decision. We would move the fair to a June date and consider it to be more of a 'kick-off' to summer!

Please join us next June for a weekend of adventure and community spirit.