Heritage festival celebrates Carberry’s bygone days
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/08/2016 (3550 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
CARBERRY — At Manitoba’s only designated heritage district, the fourth annual Carberry Heritage Festival was held this weekend.
Described as a celebration of the town’s history, the Friday-Saturday event boasts a network of locally produced goods and the opportunity for guests to learn about Carberry.
The townsite, like many others on the Prairies, was settled in the late 1800s along the Canadian Pacific railway.
Situated above the Assiniboine Delta Aquifer on fertile land, the Carberry economy was originally hoisted by the agriculture and the railroad sectors.
It quickly grew to a population of 1,600, around which it hovers today.
In 2006, the municipality designated the blocks between Second Street and Fourth a heritage district.
One hundred years ago, “it was a busy, busy street,” Cathy Drayson said on Saturday.
In 2013, she owned a business on Main Street and found the summers to be slow business, so she decided to organize a yearly festival.
“I think small towns are struggling to keep business open, but if we got it, we gotta support it (and) show it off,” she continued.
Drayson and a committee of five others planned this year’s event, sticking to a schedule that has proven successful in past years.
About 250 people attended Friday and many stayed for the old-fashioned social, at which fiddler Mark Morisseau and his band performed.
Roughly 500 came the next day and visited the town’s museums, participated in guided walking tours of the district and shopped at local vendors.
Groups of four passed by the crowd in a horse-drawn carriage while others littered the sidewalks and benches for a vintage fashion show and performance by Neepawa-based band, Swamp Gas.
Ella Bollman and her sister, daughter and granddaughter — three generations of born-and-bred Carberry women — come out each year to browse the local products.
Bollman’s great-great-grandparents founded their family farm more than 100 years ago, so much of the family’s history is intertwined with that of the town’s.
“There’s just a lot of interesting stories and you know, lots of things are unfortunately slowly going away … it’s nice to keep stuff alive.”
» aantoneshyn@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @AAntoneshyn