4-H Judge Dwayne Miller talks with Landen Clarke of the Desboro Calf Club as the 170th anniversary edition of the Owen Sound Fall Fair starts Friday in Victoria Park.

The Owen Sound Fall Fair opens at Victoria Park today, marking its 170th anniversary with a two-day free admission event.

Features run from the Fight The Knight medieval show to the Kids Pedal Tractor Pull, the regional 4-H beef show to the annual BBQ Beef Dinner, and traditional fall fair favourites such as exhibits and contests in quilting, pickling and preserves, arts and crafts, photography, culinary work, needlecraft, hay and grain, roots and vegetables, flowers, babies and toddlers.

Carol Seaman, left, and Janet Price, of the Bluewater Quilters Guild, get ready for some help making a comfort quilt during the Owen Sound Fall Fair Friday.

Vendor tents, food trucks, the entertainment tent and beer gardens are all ready to go as the Fall Fair gets under way Friday.

Travis Saunders does some final trimming as he helps Marly Woodhouse prepare her heifer calf for competition. The Rocklyn 4-H members are  participating in the Owen Sound Regional 4-H Show at the Owen Sound Fall Fair today and tomorrow at Victoria Park.

Violet Fligg's winning entry in knitted needlework is one of the hundreds of entries on show in the Julie McArthur Regional Recreation Centre during the Owen Sound Fall Fair.

The first Owen Sound Fall Fair ran in 1852 in the market square in the town's centre. It was the year after the town of Sydenham was renamed Owen Sound, and just over 10 years after the beginning of European settlement on the townsite. Queen Victoria had been on the throne for 15 years; James Bruce, the 8th Earl of Elgin, was the Governor General of the Province of Canada. The County of Grey was incorporated in 1852.

The annual fair had been moved up the hill to its present location in Victoria Park by 1894. There was a newly built wooden grandstand, which was destroyed in a fire in 1948. The existing grandstand, built in the early 1950s, has reached the end of its 70-year lifespan and the Owen Sound Agricultural Society, who runs the fall fair, is launching a fundraising drive for its replacement. Last year's fair featured the regional 4-H show after Covid restrictions had shuttered the 2020 event. Organizers note that there will be no midway or demolition derby this year. For more information visit the fall fair's website here.

 Friday September 9

10:00am
• Regional 4-H Beef Show
• Homecraft Competition & Quilt Show (Julie McArthur Regional Rec Centre)

4:00pm
• Licensed Beer Gardens open in Entertainment Tent

5:00pm
• Annual BBQ Beef Dinner Brought to you by the Grey County Beef Farmers Association & the Owen Sound Agricultural Society

7:00pm
• Local Truck & Tractor Pulls on the track

​Saturday September 10

10:00am
• Regional 4-H Dairy & Sheep Show in the barn        
• Homecraft Competition & Quilt Show (Julie McArthur Regional Rec Centre)
• Antique Tractor Pull on the track
• Fight the Knight Medieval Show
• Lakeview Vendors Market
• Touch A Truck

11:00am
• Licensed Beer Gardens open in Entertainment Tent
• Baby Show in Entertainment Tent

2:00pm
• Kids Pedal Tractor Pull (Julie McArthur Regional Rec Centre)

2:30pm
• Farmers Olympics (presented by the Grey County Junior Farmers)

3:00pm
• Ice Cream & Pie Eating Contests in Entertainment Tent  

6:00pm
• Charolais / Limousin / All Breeds Beef Shows in the barn

8:00pm - 1:00am
• 170th Celebration Dance Featuring Rewired (Entertainment Tent - age of majority event)

​Running Friday and Saturday

• Old MacDonald's Farm
• Glitter Tattoo
• Face Painting
• Lakeview Vendors Market
• Bale Maze
• Food Trucks & More

source: staff; Owen Sound Fall Fair website