The fairgrounds at the Moose Jaw Exhibition Company may be quiet this spring, but there is still hope that the future will allow some events to return to the local venue in 2021.
Due to COVID-19, the organization had to clear its calendar almost completely in 2020. All events were cancelled or postponed indefinitely, including the annual Hometown Fair and Parade.
General manager George Fowler said that many of those event bookings moved their dates into 2021, which means the Exhibition Company has a very full upcoming schedule but not a lot of answers about whether those events can happen.
“All bookings are still contingent on whatever numbers we’re allowed to have (at events) and what the government tells us, but we do have a fully booked year,” said Fowler, agreeing that it's positive to see so many people interested in using the exhibition grounds.
The venue actually has events booked well into 2022 already, said Fowler, and he expects to see more dates fill up as upcoming bookings are forced to reschedule again.
“I’m sure we’re going to have to move a lot of those into 2022 because of the regulations, and a few of them are already moving because of the uncertainty, especially weddings,” said Fowler.
His advice to anyone looking to book a wedding, horse show or other events at the exhibition grounds in the future: now is the time to do so.
“If you’re looking (to host anything), our dates are getting booked up,” said Fowler. “Dates are going to be a premium in 2022, because of the carry-over from 2020 to ‘21, and then ‘21 to ‘22.”
The organizing board for the Hometown Fair and Parade is also waiting with bated breath to see if the fair can happen this year. Fowler said that while the fair has not been cancelled yet, it has been put on hold until closer to the event date.
“We’re proceeding with caution, and we go week by week with what we’re told by the government. It would be hard to imagine that by (June) they’d open it up so we could have thousands of people come to the fairgrounds, but you never know. We’re still being optimistic,” said Fowler.
Planning for the huge summer event begins almost a year in advance, and organizers are waiting to make any concrete plans until later in the spring when more details are known — which will shorten their planning window considerably.
“The good news is we’ve done this long enough that we know what needs to be done. We can’t guarantee we’d be able to get everything we want to if we only get started in March, but we could pull it together,” said Fowler.
For now, the exhibition grounds remain largely empty. All of the convention centre buildings are not open for use due to the restrictions on gatherings, and the boarding arena is currently hosting around 40 tenants who board their horses and utilize the arena.
The Exhibition Company also recently announced it will no longer be accepting new tenants or day riders in the arena as of Jan. 20, which Fowler explained was a decision made with the health and safety of the current tenants in mind.
“We felt that, with the current COVID situation, we needed to be careful and protect our tenants that are here, without adding more people into the situation,” said Fowler. “We’re certainly supportive of the government’s rules and regulations, and we’re trying to follow them as best we can.”
Instead, staff have been keeping busy finishing some renovation projects around the grounds while the buildings are empty.
“We’re doing repairs and painting, some of which we hadn’t planned on doing in 2020 or 2021, but we’ve been able to keep our staff working (so) that when we do get to open everything, it's going to look quite nice,” said Fowler.
