Threshermen’s Reunion adds Select Shows to weekend lineup

For the first time in decades, the Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion & Stampede will sport a carnival-style midway this weekend, after the Manitoba Agricultural Museum in Austin offered to be a stand-in host for a Select Shows gig that was flooded out in Swan River.

Earlier this month, the Swan River Valley Agricultural Society was forced to cancel the 2026 North West Agricultural Society Exhibition & Stampede after a flooding emergency in the region forced local evacuations and caused extensive damage, requiring the services of contractors, emergency responders, volunteers and community members to focus on recovery and cleanup.

The Swan River event was supposed to take place from July 23-26 — the same weekend event dates as the Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion & Stampede.

The reunion co-ordinators have been looking to bring a midway to the Austin event for several years. And while this is not the way they were hoping to attract a midway company, museum executive director Dianne Kohler said it was a way of helping Select Shows fill a suddenly empty spot on their calendar.

“We never want to gain because of someone else’s misfortune,” Kohler said. “But when they made the announcement that they were shutting down their exhibition and stampede because of water damage, we reached out and just let them know that if the midway was looking for a home, we would be happy to accommodate them on short notice.”

The midway will be set up beside the rodeo grounds and open this Friday at 4 p.m., with noon starts the following Saturday and Sunday.

The Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion & Stampede, post-pandemic, has garnered crowds of between 14,000 to 15,000 people every year.

Elliot Sims, a volunteer with the long-running Austin event, said organizers hope that the hosting a midway this year will be a strong draw for the reunion and lead to future midway visits.

“We’re happy that Select Shows is here this year, and we’re going to take it year by year,” Sims said. “Hopefully we get a great crowd and a lot of people coming out to enjoy the rides.”

Aside from the midway, there are plenty of new attractions at this year’s Threshermen’s Reunion & Stampede.

The event has partnered with Versatile, an agricultural machinery manufacturer based out of Winnipeg. The company is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, marking six decades since the release of its first mass-produced articulated four-wheel-drive tractor in 1966.

As part of its anniversary year, Versatile will enjoy a public celebration expo at the reunion, featuring an extensive historical display that tracks the company’s machinery over the last six decades. As part of that display, Sims said the museum will have several Versatile tractors on hand, from older models like the original D100, up to their most recent vehicles right off the assembly line.

“We’re quite pleased to be celebrating such an amazing management success story that has changed agriculture, not just here in the province, but literally around the world,” Sims said. “We’ll have a number of items of sort of the regular tractors you would have seen in the field, but as well as some of the prototype tractors that, you know, maybe didn’t quite make it.”

One of these unusual machines includes a prototype log skidder that was created by the company when it was considering getting into the forestry industry. The skidder has been at the Versatile factory in Winnipeg for the last several decades.

“That log skidder has come out of the factory for the first time ever, and as far as we know, will be on display here. It’s something new and unique that you literally wouldn’t have seen anywhere else,” Sims said. “And actually, we’re quite pleased that the museum (in Austin) is going to be its forever home and it’ll actually be staying here after the show and becoming part of our collection.”

Another draw this year will be the expanded Manitoba Clydesdale Classic show, which will include nearly 100 Clydesdale horses participating over the first three days of the festival, starting Thursday morning at 10 a.m.

“That’s up significantly from last year,” Sims said, “like double the number of horses from last year. And we’re quite pleased to be bringing back an eight-horse hitch class. It’s becoming more unusual to see eight-horse hitches out at fairs across the province, because there’s not quite as many people showing at that level.”

The Clydesdale Classic runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings at the arena grounds, and there will be some afternoon classes as well.

And don’t forget to check out the rodeo action on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening starting at 7:30 p.m. at the festival grandstand.

While there’s always new attractions at the Threshermen’s Reunion & Stampede, one of the most important aspects of the Manitoba Agricultural Museum is the ongoing effort to tell the story of agriculture in the province. And one of the ways they do this is through a festival feature called History Alive, which uses period re-enactment actors in the museum village.

For Kohler, who came to the museum in May, this particular feature of the festival is one that she would like to see grow in the years to come.

“They’re going to be walking around the village telling those stories,” Kohler said. “As we know, storytelling is an important element of education and history and the way things were done in the past. It’s definitely an area that we’re looking to expand as we go forward.

“I’m going to be watching for how that comes to life this year, and looking to expand on that for 2027 for sure.”

With a background in major event development, this year marks the first time Kohler will have been part of the Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion & Stampede in “probably 40 years,” and she is using this year’s festival to get her bearings and learn how the event is organized.

“This year is just analyzing and auditing, seeing how the whole event comes together, and learning — obviously tons of learning,” Kohler said. “Just watching how the whole site comes alive with all the activities. And then once we open the gates on Thursday, just, you know, looking forward to talking with attendees and their experience here.”

Kohler says her hope is to keep the Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion & Stampede current and relevant for the years to come.

For a full festival schedule, see mbagmuseum.ca.

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