With summer coming to end it’s time to welcome back the Luxton Fall Fair. Spend the weekend back in time appreciating tooting steam tractors, and blacksmiths pounding red hot metal.
For fair volunteer Julian Rapps, it’s the chainsaw carvers that get him excited, so much that he has a four-foot carved owl in his home.
“They carve them out of huge pieces of cedar logs,” Rapps said. The carvings created on the fairgrounds are raffled off during the fair.
The fair also boats plenty of displays from cow milking to chicken and rabbits. The smell of baking bread and cinnamon buns, will lead people to the clay oven.
“It’s quite a process,” said fairgrounds volunteer Ian McKenzie. “They light a fire that burns until it’s out, then they scrape all the ashes out and use the oven’s heat to bake.”
McKenzie will also have a display set up showing the wooden buckets he makes.
For the thrill-seekers the fair highlight may be a hands-on motocross demonstration. There are separate tracks for children and adults to rip around on.
As always the midway will be out in full swing for fair-goers of all ages.
“When I was young and foolish I used to go on rides,” said McKenzie adding the zero gravity drop ride is new this year.
The Langford archive will be open with an interpreter showing the history of the West Shore. In the exhibit there is a general store from 1800 and an assortment of photographs documenting the community.
The grounds will also be full of vendors offering art, clothing and carnival food. Admission is free. For more information go to www.luxtonfair.ca.
Fair opens early for special needs
Smiling faces will fill the fairgrounds before it’s open to the public.
The Luxton Fall Fair opens its doors early, Friday, Sept. 14, to anyone with special needs and their caregivers.
Guests arrive at the fairgrounds at 11 a.m. for free lunch and entertainment. Then the midway opens and special guests ride for free. Midway staff volunteer their time and students from Belmont secondary volunteer to ride with the guests.
The special needs day is the only one if it’s kind on the Island and possibly in B.C. Special needs day is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1040 Marwood Avenue.