Farmersville Exhibition 2024 aka Farmersville 2024 or Athens Steamfair or Athens Steam fair
When: July 19th (evening), July 20th, and July 21st, 2024
Where: Centennial Park and Centre '76 Athens Ontario Canada
Feature tractor: International Harvester
All makes are welcome.
Admission Fees (as of January 4th 2024):
$30 - weekend pass
or daily rates as follows...
$15 - Friday night
$15 - Saturday
$15 - Sunday
Returning Events:
Friday - Truck Pull
Saturday - Vintage Tractor Pull
Sunday - Horse Draw and Lawnmower Pull
Please check out the Schedule of Events page for more information.
Exhibitors - Bring your vintage tractor, farm equipment, car, truck, motorcycle, small engine, homebuilt buggy - we are always looking for unique displays!
Questions?
Steve Flood 613-802-8340
Derek Miller 613-924-1211
Vendors and crafters - if you would like to book a booth in the rink, please email ashleysadler15@gmail.com. If you would like a space outdoors, please email heffernan65@yahoo.ca
Campers - to book a camp site, please contact Peter Vanderlinden at 613-498-7606. Limited sites available. Dry camping. No hydro. No water.
Volunteers - Would you like to volunteer? We would greatly appreciate your help - we will need people to help with a variety of tasks during the week leading up to the show. Pease contact Larry Winters at 613-803-7801 or email lpwinters@sympatico.ca
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For all other queries, please email farmersvillelionsclub@gmail.com
Thank you!!
History of Farmersville Exhibition
Back in the 1970's, before there was a steam fair, a few members of the Lions Club of Athens had been exhibiting equipment and making contacts with like-minded folks at Fairs in places like Belleville, Picton, Cardinal, Lombardy, and Merrickville. Even in the US at times. Out of this experience the idea of staging an annual fair in Athens was born. With help and advice from Merrickville Fair organizers, Lions Robert Hartley, (then president) Gordon Mack, and John Dancy together with Rupe Green and his wife Beverly, were key people in launching what has become a July tradition in Athens. They, along with many other members of the Athens and area community have kept it going for over 38 years. Since its inception George Tackaberry & Sons Construction Company has been a generous supporter and contributor to the success of the Exhibition.
The First exhibition in 1980 was modest by current standards. The whole show was staged in one small corner of the Centre '76 fairgrounds and on the ball diamond. In its early years it was mainly an exhibit of operating vintage machinery, a Craft show conceived by Maxine Mack, and a beer tent. Great old steam engines have been so much the centrepiece of the Ex that many folks, sometimes unaware of its proper name, call it the Steamfair, though there is much more to it in recent years. It has expanded over the years to become many times its early size. Several horse events, tractor competitions and other attractions have been added. Many exhibitors who displayed equipment or crafts at the first show still show up every July to renew old ties and make new ones.
The majority of the use of the steam tractors in the old days were to run the large "Threshing machines" which separated the the kernel from stocks of grain crops, in much the same way that Combines do today.