In its sweetest year yet, the Sackville Fall Fair celebrated its 16th last weekend. Taking place at various spots across town, the Fair offered new and returning students the perfect opportunity to explore Sackville.
With a new logo looking like something right off of a Shredded Wheat cereal box, the Fair committee boasted its biggest year yet. Hypnotist Ian Stewart opened the festivities Wednesday night by charming the crowd with his mystifying skills. The event took place at the Vogue Theatre, one of Sackville’s landmarks.
Thursday’s events offered a leisurely evening, beginning with a book sale at the Sackville Public Library and followed by the gallery opening of Camp Cyanotype at the Visitor Information Centre. Over the summer, Rachel Thornton, Waterfowl Park’s summer artist-in-residence, taught herself how to make cyanotype photographs. She later held a group class to teach community members how to capture the magic of the marsh through cyanotyping.
Local hotspots kicked off the weekend festivities on Friday by offering chili by the bowl, blueberry treats and barbecue. The day ended with a free evening concert in the main tent, located between local pizza favourite Goya’s and the Canadian Postal service office – luckily, no postal strike interrupted the celebrations.
Two bands continued to light up the town long after the sky had exploded with colourful fireworks. The first, Halifax psychedelic punk band Walrus, had the crowd throwing up rock hands and dancing with reckless abandon. The tent filled up quickly towards the end of their set, the growing crowd buzzing in anticipation of Plants and Animals.
After a withdrawn set-up, Plants and Animals performed with loud instruments and barely audible vocals, producing sounds heavily nostalgic of bad 2000’s rock, clearly showing signs of a four-year hiatus. The performance had an acquired taste.
Saturday promised an expanded farmers’ market, but it was surprisingly empty. There were no more than the normal number of vendors, possibly fewer––and understandably so, since the Doncaster Farm’s annual family day was in full swing. The farm was home to distressed petting-zoo animals and too many puppies for two hands to pet at once.
The rest of the weekend featured events for revelers of all ages, ranging from music, dancing, laser-tag and sandcastle-making. The town made sure to hit almost every Sackville landmark, from Bridge Street to Silver Lake.
The 16th celebration of the Fair had its bumps, not unlike any teenage year, but it nonetheless provided the town with five days of exploring and bonding. It is important for Mount Allison students to engage in their new hometown, or at least to experience it as less of a space to get locked in the library for 10 hours, and more as a community brimming with Maritime culture.
