Lucknow Fall Fair marks another successful year

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

The Citizen is sorry to report that there were a lot of problems at the Lucknow Fall Fair (LFF) last weekend. It all started to go wrong on Thursday - as soon as the arena doors were unlocked in the morning, people started showing up with their entries for the home crafts competition - and they just kept coming. And coming. 

 

Friday was more of the same - just car after car, unloading jar after jar. There were little red wagons piled high with quilts, giant ferns, enormous sunflowers, antique teapot collections - it wouldn’t stop.

 

While the intake team was handily able to keep the relentless flow of entries organized, it soon became obvious that the Lucknow Agricultural Society (LAS) had woefully underestimated the amount of table space required to hold all these unique treasures as each one vied for a coveted prize. 

 

Extra tables were brought out to accommodate the overflow, but it still wasn’t enough. Children’s art entries covered the halls from top to bottom. Tarts had to be rearranged to make room for squares, and, in turn, squares had to be rearranged to make room for pies - it was pure bedlam.

 

Volunteers rearranged the cut flower tables over and over, but more and more dahlias just kept arriving. Eventually, they were forced to throw in the towel - there were just too many blooms for two people to handle! Home craft maven Sharon Nivins ended up saving the day by setting up yet another extra table, which was used to set up one flower category at a time, so the judges could get a good look at every single entry.

 

Speaking of the judges - they had their own share of issues with which to deal. There were too many sweets to sample, too many crafts to consider, and choosing a winner out of all the entries was a daunting task. Nevertheless, they persisted, and once the judging was complete, the fair officially opened. 

 

The problems didn’t stop when the public poured in - it seemed to LAS members that Friday night was very well attended indeed, but, because they had decided to make admission free for all on Friday, there was no way to officially count how many people there were exactly. And now we will never know. 

 

So many Little and Junior Ambassadors entered the competition that Queenie Pentland was crowned as Lucknow’s Senior Ambassador later in the day than expected, which in turn meant the free Bingo ended up running well into the evening. That didn’t stop people from sticking around to play, of course - Bingo was packed right to the end of the last game. 

 

Other complaints about the LFF - Friday’s backyard wrestling was too popular with the kids. The same with the reptile show on Saturday afternoon. The python, in particular, freaked some people out. The parade on Saturday had so many pipe bands that they got into a musical battle. The list goes on and on. 

 

Luckily, none of these problems stopped visitors from having a great time at the 162nd Lucknow Fall Fair! We can only hope that things go better next year.