Page 60 - Brandon Sun - Royal manitoba Winter Fair 2019

60 THE BRANDON SUN • ROYAL MANITOBA WINTER FAIR • MARCH 25-30, 2019

Ron Kristjansson, general manager for the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, stands outside the Dome Building. Although they won’t host any events inside the
historic building this year, he said it’s a possibility for next. (Melissa Verge/The Brandon Sun)
Winter Fair carries $11M economic impact

BY MELISSA VERGE those types of things, musical economic impact. That’s mon- and get down to the States,” he
entertainment, we’ve got an ey coming in from outside the said. “The people are looking
The Royal Manitoba Win- old-time fiddlers contest on the community, Kristjansson said, to stay at home and spend their
ter Fair has become a popular Wednesday. with more than half of fair at- Canadian dollars where they
entertainment destination for “There’s just something for tendees coming from at least 80 get their full dollar’s worth.”
thousands of Manitobans every everybody in the family.” kilometres away. Behind the scenes, work
year. The Winter Fair is held “It’s becoming I think even never stops. Organizers are busy
Provincial Exhibition of annually inside the Keystone more and more a province-wide pretty much year-round work-
Manitoba general manager Ron Centre. show for us,” Kristjansson said. ing to put on the Winter Fair
Kristjansson credits the success Each March, the Winter Many visitors have travelled and plan for future ones.
to the wide variety of events Fair consistently draws a crowd to the fair from the Winnipeg, “We’re looking for entertain-
that they offer. of approximately 100,000 peo- Steinbach or Winkler areas in ers or for judges and exhibitors,
“I think one of the big things ple, Kristjansson said, having a previous years, a number Krist- those type of things,” Kristjans-
that draws people is the vari- huge economic impact on the jansson expects will continue to son said. “If somebody’s not
ety,” Kristjansson said. “We’ve community of Brandon. increase with less people travel- able to come or doesn’t fit the
got cattle shows, we’ve got Five years ago, they had an ing outside the country. schedule for one reason or an-
horses, we’ve got world-calibre independent economic study “The exchange rate to the other, they’ll be on a list to be
jumping horses, barrel racing, done that showed the fair had U.S. has got extremely poor coming next year.”
clowns, jugglers, magicians, approximately $11 million in from people wanting to go away » Continued on Page 61