MARCH 2022 • WINTER FAIR • THE BRANDON SUN
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perience from virtual. In this day and age of Xbox and screens, this fair is a tactile experience offering sights, sounds and smells and tastes everyone needs to have.” The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair has a long and storied history in Brandon. The fair itself is 152 years old, but it hasn’t always been a royal event. It re- ceived that designation on July 11, 1970, when Queen Elizabeth II granted roy- al patronage to the winter fair. This allows the fair to have the “royal” title forev- er. At the time, the fair was also being held in the new- ly-built Keystone Centre and was one of the first major events held in the building. But the fair’s roots in this community go back much further. » Continued on Page 16
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Staff and volunteers at the fair have had to work extra hard to make sure events go as planned. Ev- eryone knows it’s an all- hand-on-deck situation and the team and directors are expecting everyone to give it their all to make the fair a success, Cleaver said. “It’s sad that our staff has contracted during the pandemic, and when that happens a lot of history goes with them,” she said. “We’ve also had a lot of people that have been with us for years return. Once they get in and get to work, things happen. I have faith that they know what they are doing.” The most important part for Cleaver is that children who have never experi- enced the fair live will fi- nally get to be there. “It’s a very different ex-
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