Everyone loves a parade, especially on a spectacular autumn morning when the sun is shining and the mercury heads north.
On Friday morning in Elmvale, about 20 minutes north of Barrie, thousands of folks took advantage of the weather and lined the village’s streets and boulevards to take in the official opening event of the Elmvale Fall Fair, with the children’s parade, a spectacle that featured about 2,000 local pupils from schools across the region.
Beginning with a police cruiser and fire engines, the children’s parade is one of the fair’s highlights and it features kids of every age, from kindergarten to Grade 12.
Small children held mom or dad's hand as they walked and waved feverishly to the spectators.
Teens, far too cool for this sort of thing in any urban centre, hooted and hollered, singing songs at the top of their lungs.
“The kids are right into it,” said Tanya King, first vice-president of the fair executive. “The kids love being in the parade.”
The pinnacle of the parade, according to King and virtually every other person BarrieToday spoke to, were the floats made by local high schoolers.
According to those in the know, which is everyone in Elmvale, the high schoolers are divided into four teams and each one has to build a float. They only have a few days to create their float and they go about their business in secret, clandestinely working in sheds and workshops after school.
The unveiling represents the culmination of all of their efforts and provides the winners of ‘best float’ with bragging rights for a year.
As the parade made its way down the village’s main street on its way to the fairgrounds on George Street, proud parents and grandparents went snap happy, capturing an endless supply of smile-inducing memories, in both still and video formats.
Many of the parents and grandparents who lined the streets this year as spectators spent quite a few of their own early years in the parade.
They keep coming back to Elmvale to relive the memories, eager to make more.
“The fair is also our homecoming,” said King. “Folks who were raised here and then moved away always seem to come back for the fair.
“It’s amazing to stand here and watch all of these folks. Generations of them, all enjoying the fair," she added.
According to King, fair organizers are expecting about 6,000 visitors over the course of the two-day event.
Friday’s lineup included the kids’ pedal tractor pull, the pony show, the antique tractor pull and a performance by rising country star Ty Baynton at 8 p.m.
Saturday attractions include livestock judging, stock and modified truck and tractor pull, the Lion’s Club truck draw and the Pure Country 106 video dance party.
Admission to the fair is $13 for adults, $8 for students and free for elementary school and younger. Midway tickets are purchased separately.
For more information, click here.
