Malcolm's Can-Am Trip: Abbortsford Agrifair

The Abbotsford Agricultural Fair was the first of the fairs on the trip and gave us a taster of what the Canadian Fair scene was like.

First thing we learnt is that you pay to enter then pay for anything inside. Second thing we learnt was that it was really hot, and there wasn't much shade other than within the large exhibition halls.

Perhaps that's why vehicles are so large in North American so that in the absence of any shade you can camp under them.

I stopped complaining about the heat when I saw these guys. heroes or mad, I'll let you decide.

Nice to see that this fair catered for the wooden animals too!

The Canadian are famous for their bacon, Is this how it is made here.

The operator of the go-kart was having a hard time due to the kids not knowing how to steer properly. I bet they can score a behind-the-back goal on the ice hockey rink though.

There were 2 children's coasters at the fair. The first Dragon Wagon was down due to technical issues.

Dragon Wagons are notoriously difficult to get on in the US as they enforce the height restriction rule. This also had a restriction in place but the operator told us that if they got the ride running he'd be happy for us to ride it...they never got the ride open.

The second coaster was a mini-coaster, which again I have ridden in the UK many times. Today however the operator was enforcing the height restriction rule and preventing us from riding.

So the third thing we learnt about Canadian Fairs is that it's not easy to get on the kids rides.

The final thing we learnt today was to check you can ride before you spend money on the tickets. A simple mistake we quickly learnt the hard way.

Elsewhere the selection of rides was pretty good and for the most part we could ride them, although we chose not to. Having our coaster-riding hearts ripped from our chests so early on meant that we were reluctant to spend any more money here. The others used the purchased tickets to do the haunted walkthough, which they did so quick I can only suggest it wasn't very good. They spent most of the time on the upper deck taking overview photos of the rides.

The circular thing is referred to as a Ring of Fire and these are common travelling rides in North America. They don't count as coasters although an argument can be made that they should be. I went to use my vouchers on this but the operator seemed disinterested in running it so I gave up.

These were the guys running the fair.

These are Chance Zippers and they're a disorientating take on the big wheel. I find them a bit claustrophobic and they don't half make a lot of noise when you're in them. Chance is an American company and they've been making these since the 60s.

Here's a view from the inside.

The fair was just as busy as the park, not very. I imagine they come to life more at night when most of the entertainment kicks in. This Agrifair advertises a rodeo which would have been cool had we had the time to stick around.

Check the yellow snow before you buy :)

Still, yellow snow would be better than coca cola.

Another common ride in North America that I only recall seeing elsewhere once in China are these fruit spinning things.

So the midway section of the fair was alright but disappointing to us due to not being able to ride either coaster, but this is the risk with fairs and we soon cheered ourselves up.

Weird traffic cone art installation.

Mini Golf.

Daytime entertainment came in the form of Yeehaw Country and Western

Yes, they had both. Actually looking at the entertainment line-up I'm being a tad unfair. They also had rock, pig and duck racing and wrestling.

Inside the exhibition hall we found a mixture of local retailers selling their wares and some activity tables such as this professional Lego builder showing off.