After 135 years, the future of the Peterborough Exhibition remains uncertain and organizers point the blame directly at the city.
The annual four-day agricultural fair was held at Morrow Park from 1845 until 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the exhibition’s cancellation in 2020 and 2021 as events were shifted online.
The 2022 version was cancelled due to an ongoing dispute between the host Peterborough Agricultural Society and the City of Peterborough over land use at Morrow Park.
Construction continues on a new twin-pad arena at the park. Agricultural society president Mark Balkwill says the loss of land impacts the chances of hosting larger events such as livestock shows and midway rides.
“A lot of those traditions can’t take place anymore because of development,” he told Global News.
Instead this year, the exhibition will host just a homecraft event at Lang Pioneer Village in nearby Keene from Aug. 25 to 27.
Balkwill claims the society hasn’t had much co-operation with the city on the impact of the exhibition.
“We look at Lindsay and Belleville and they’re doing a great job and they’ve got strong support from their cities to help relocate their fairgrounds,” he said. “That’s probably something that we maybe would’ve wished happened here.”
Viren D’souza, past president of the agricultural society, alleges city officials put “barriers” in the way of the exhibition. He stepped down as president last month and says he no longer speaks for the society.
“When you’re just a volunteer and you have this behemoth of a city in front of you that’s placing barriers in the way, it’s easy to just sort of give up or move on to something else,” he said.
He argues the new arena is being built on space that was reserved for exhibition use per an agreement with the city.
In 1938, the Morrow family gave the 27-acre property to the city and a revised condition in 1983 stated that some of the park has to be maintained for agricultural purposes. If the terms aren’t met, the land would revert back to the family.
The city has previously stated the arena project still leaves approximately half of the property for the agricultural society to use.
“I think it’s just a larger trend of governments not putting agricultural as a priority all around,” said D’souza.
The City of Peterborough says it worked closely with the agricultural society on land use prior to shovels going in the ground for the arena construction,
“We certainly have gone to great lengths during the planning of the twin-pad arena complex that’s being constructed right now to ensure the agricultural society could continue the exhibition, if it chose to,” said Sheldon Laidman, the city’s commissioner of community services.
Balkwill says the agricultural society continues to search for an alternative location to host its usual large-scale, varied exhibitions.
“Things change and we have to be adaptable to change,” he said.
— with files from Germain Ma, Global News Peterborough
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