My Royal Experience: The Venue
On November 12th, I had the chance to go to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair that is held annually in Toronto. If you are unaware of what this fair is, the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (also known as the Royal Winter Fair or just simply the Royal) celebrates all things agricultural in downtown Toronto, Ontario.
Picture from:
http://idontblog.ca/free-tickets-to-the-royal-agricultural-winter-fair/
I've always wanted to go as this fair is always publicised as being a big deal for agricultural lovers, especially horse lovers. So this year, we bought the tickets and off we went.
The exhibition place was much larger than I expected. It was filled with vendors selling equine jewelry, custom saddles, custom boots, tack, souvenirs and so much more. There were rows and rows of little shops to visit and spend your money.
As you walked past that section, you were then invited into food stands that will meet anyone's cravings. Whether you wanted pulled pork, funnel cake, BeaverTails, poutine or a sandwich, there was something there for you. Although many of the options weren't very healthy, they all looked delicious. I'd recommend Smoke's Poutinerie if you have never had a poutine before as it was the best one I have had since living in Ontario (and coming from someone who was brought up in Quebec, that's saying something!).
Oreo funnel cake
Picture taken by me
Within the food section of the building, there are various food competitions going on. Some of these competitions include best vegetable or fruit, best tasting jam or cheese and best butter sculpture.
All of these areas of the fair were great, but it wouldn't be an agricultural fair without the animals. If you could think of any farm animal, it was probably at this fair. They had chickens, geese, cows, pigs, rabbits, sheep, ducks, goats and so much more. There was even a petting zoo for the kids. Many local farms had brought their best animals to the fair to compete against other. The best part was that you could walk around and watch the owners take care of their animals. There weren't any barriers so you could easily reach out and pet each animal if you wanted to.
Picture taken by me
Picture taken by me
We had a blast at the fair. We will definitely try to go back again next year.
If you're wondering where the horses fit into this fair, don't worry. I'll talk about that part of the fair in the next posts. It will be too long of a blog post if I shared everything now so stay tuned!
What I will say is that seeing the horses and the competitions were the highlight of the fair. Also, if you're a fan of FEI, then you'll also know why we decided to visit the fair on that particular day.
That's all I am going to say for today and I hope you are all having a good week.
Until next time, happy riding!
Don't forget to read the other posts about my experience at the Royal if you've missed them:
Part 1 - My Royal Experience: The Venue