(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

ARMSTRONG - Few events can say they’ve lasted more than a century.

Fewer still can claim that they’re older than the city in which they reside.

But, if recent attendance numbers are any indication, Armstrong Interior Provincial Exhibition is far from its end.

Now in its 120th year, the IPE is set to open its gates to the public at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28 for five days of horsing around.

Yvonne Paulson, now in her fourth year at the fair but third as general manager, has already seen big changes.

“I’ve seen an evolution in the past few years,” Paulson said from the bustling fair office the day before the festivities were about to get underway. “We’ve gone a lot more electronic now.”

One key evolution that has seen a tremendous impact on attendees, Paulson said, is the addition of online ticketing through the IPE website.

In previous years, fair-goers would have to locate a business in which tickets were available. While that still can be done, Paulson said the ease-of-purchase change has been welcomed.

When Armstrong was no more than a collection of houses built near the railway, it would have been difficult to see the fair last as long as it has from its formative event 120 years ago. But in a speech to local Rotarians reported in the Aug. 31, 1939 edition of The Vernon News, former IPE manager Mat Hassen had a hunch that the fair had zeroed in on something important.

“Many of you will recall in the earlier years of this century when there was a little local fair in almost every town and crossroad in the country and to keep these going was not only a considerable drain on the local communities but on the governments and the merchants of the various centres,” Hassen said.

Future developments throughout the 1920s in terms of transportation and municipal growth helped pull the fair forwards.

“With the blessing of the government, we ceased to be a local fair and became a B Class Exhibition receiving for the first time a federal grant," Hassen said.

Hassen boiled the fair’s success down to two key factors: the welfare of agriculture and friendship.

An August 1939 article in The Vernon News, found in the Greater Vernon Museum and Archives files, follows former manager Mat. Hassen as he outlines the Armstrong Interior Provincial Exhibitions then 39-year history.

(PARKER CROOK / iNFOnews.ca)

According to Paulson, those same elements remain today.

“There is always something for everyone here at the fair,” Paulson said.

From the agricultural exhibits – including a new reptile encounters feature for the kids – to the Pro Rodeo Tour that goes live every night with finals on Sunday, to the numerous food vendors selling dill pickle lemonade and corndog poutines, to hours of live entertainment and rides at the Midway, Paulson said the fair has expanded on its roots year after year.

“We’re horsing around at the IPE this year,” Paulson laughed. “Hats off to the City of Armstrong and Township of Spallumcheen. They’ve rallied around this. They own this event."

As contestants and fair-goers pour into Armstrong and Spallumcheen in anticipation of the Exhibition, with some coming from as far away as Hawaii Paulson said, the history of the fair is intertwined with the modern era.

But, as Paulson and Hassen said, the dedication to agriculture and friendship lives on.

The Interior Provincial Exhibition runs from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1. Gates are open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Midway opens at 11 a.m. For more information, visit the IPE website.

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• Fair's agricultural roots strong as ever as IPE opens for 119th year

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