THE BRANDON SUN • WINTER FAIR • MARCH 2022
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As an internationally rec- ognized event, the winter fair brings a whole new lev- el of exposure for the com- munity, along with a large volume of visitors to the Wheat City. “They are definitely an integral part of our com- munity, but we have other large events that are just as important,” Trudel said. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tru- del described the fair as the first big kick back into the foray of events post-pan- demic. “That’s where the excite- ment gets generated it’s a sign that we have now found a way to be able to go back to our roots of be- ing a tremendous host city for events,” Trudel said. “It’s that ray of hope that we are finding our way out of the COVID pandemic and
Shoppers make their way through the Keystone Centre. (File)
our ‘regular life.’ This is one more phase in that. It’s one more small step that gives everybody more optimism, helps people just to adjust a little bit more back to how things once were,” Cooper said. “It’s very exciting to see this happening.” The Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba has done a tre- mendous job of surviving in a world where they were unable to engage in the tra- ditional events they host in the community, Cooper said. He is happy they can “get up off the mat” and start to do what they are ex- cellent at — hosting events like winter fair. “We’re just really excit- ed to see this and more and more of these types of things to happen again. We’re going to see some more vents come back as the year goes on and I hope that people will be respectful to each other as we all sort of work our way through this … people are adjusting at different speeds and we have to un- derstand that some people are a little slower and some people are a little faster.” » ckemp@brandonsun.com » Twitter: @The_ChelseaKem
RMWF return, Brandon Chamber of Commerce president Barry Cooper told the Sun. He estimates there is at least $12 million generated from the eco- nomic spin-offs from the winter fair alone. “It’s more than that, I think it gives everybody a feeling that we’re start- ing again a little bit farther down that path to return- ing to a lot of regular life,” Cooper said. “I think that glimmer of optimism is a really, really important thing to see here as we get into spring.” These critical economic spin-offs will continue to grow as the community sees the travelling public once again return to the city. Brandon is at the two- year mark of when the world essentially stopped due to the COVID-19 virus and he is hopeful for what lies ahead as recovery be- gins, Cooper said. The win- ter fair is also helping build confidence that the city and province are on a road to economic and social re- covery after two years of crisis during the pandemic. “We’re slowly progress- ing back towards what we would like to think of as
demonstrating that we still can do large events here in the community despite all the circumstances that have changed in the last couple of years.” All businesses in the city are excited to see the
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