Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival Annapolisa Leadership Candidates are shown in a 2016 handout photo courtesy of Light and Lens Photography. The vice-president of the Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival says changes to the long-running Nova Scotia event mean male, female and transgender candidates can now run for the crown. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO- Light and Lens Photography MANDATORY CREDIT

KENTVILLE, N.S. - A Nova Scotia festival that has crowned a queen for more than 80 years is opening up the competition to people of all genders and gender identities.

The Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival has removed long-standing restrictions and will now accept all male and female candidates as long as they have graduated from high school or an equivalent program and are between 18 and 23 years old.

Alxys Chamberlain, the festival's vice-president, said Monday that includes transgender candidates.

"To my knowledge, we have not (previously) had a candidate who identifies as transgender," Chamberlain said.

Organizers say they are reaching out to a wider group of people and wanted to make the event more inclusive by removing barriers that once prevented women with children or who had been married from participating. Candidates also had to be single during their reign and could not be pregnant.

"These changes will be beneficial in promoting inclusion within the entire Annapolis Valley," Chamberlain said in a statement. "This will allow new leaders to come forward and be ambassadors for their communities."

Chamberlain said the new rules mean the winner of the leadership competition would be dubbed Queen Annapolisa or just Annapolisa, if both men and women compete. She says if all of the candidates identify as male, the awarded title would be King Annapolisa.

Chamberlain said people in the area have largely welcomed the changes, some of which the board made previously, before this year's candidate's agreement was released.

"The response from the public has been overwhelmingly positive," she said, adding that the mandate is to "promote young Valley leaders and to help prepare candidates for the business world."

The contest, which begins May 24, first started in 1933 and judged candidates on their "personality, intelligence, clarity, maturity, poise, and overall demonstrated representative behaviour," according to the website. She said the competition, which was once referred to as a pageant, are evaluated on their resume, interviews, their response to an impromptu question, public speaking and community interests.

When it started, the festival was meant to promote the apple industry and the region's scenery. A blossom queen was selected from princesses representing several apple-growing communities in the area. The Associated Screen News of Montreal covered one of the first coronations, making newsreels shown in movie theatres throughout Canada and the United States.

In 2012, 23-year-old transgender Vancouverite Jenna Talackova, originally barred from the Miss Universe Canada Pageant because she was born a male, won her fight to participate. At the competition on May 19, she made it into the top-12.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2017