Austin all set for 69th Threshermen’s Reunion

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This article was published 23/07/2025 (248 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After hundreds of hours of preparation, the 69th annual Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion & Stampede is set to kick off this morning — giving guests a glimpse into the province’s agricultural history.

The Manitoba Agricultural Museum in Austin hosts the four-day event, which runs from 9 a.m. Thursday to 1 a.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. to midnight on Sunday.

“This is such an important tradition to keep our agricultural heritage alive and to educate Manitobans and visitors to Manitoba about what life was like in rural Manitoba 100 years ago,” Manitoba Agricultural Museum executive director Elliot Sims said Wednesday.

Sims said he grew up volunteering, and the reunion has always been a family summer highlight, with his cousins, aunts and uncles volunteering as well.

He said the event stems from the 1940s when a group of people were concerned about the disappearance of antique farming equipment and decided to get together in Portage la Prairie.

“This group of individuals … decided they needed to create a home for that machinery where they could preserve them, operate them and pass on tradition and knowledge,” he said. “Out of that was born the Manitoba Agricultural Museum in 1953.”

The next year, the museum held the first Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion & Stampede.

Now, the event encompasses roughly 100 acres of land and has become Canada’s largest farm heritage festival, Sims said, adding that roughly 12,000 people come through the gates over the four days.

Sims said some of the staple events include the Portage Agri Sales Stampede, the Manitoba Clydesdale Classic, vintage fashion shows and the CFRY Pioneer Power Parade, where all the vintage machines come to life.

This year, the festival’s featured equipment brand is John Deere.

“For those green and yellow aficionados out there … we expect to be having a very large representation of John Deere equipment and tractors going back to the beginning of their production right through to the modern-day machines,” he said.

Sims said about 600 volunteers come together from coast to coast to plan, organize and execute the event.

One of those volunteers, Tierney Demare, 35, said her parents met at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum and got married there in 1974, and she has been attending and volunteering with Manitoba’s Threshermen’s Reunion & Stampede since she was born. Her parents, who are 71 and 73 years old, are still active volunteers.

Demare described the camaraderie between the volunteers as being part of a “chosen family.”

“It truly is a reunion … You see the same people every year,” Demare said. “Whether or not we see each other outside of the reunion, we know that we’ll always see each other next year.”

Demare and her four children volunteer with the Reunion Ladies Activities, where they do baking, fashion shows and demonstrations of the roles of pioneer women.

“We get to teach our kids about where they came from and what their ancestors did,” she said.

She said the festival hits close to home since she’s married to a farmer and understands the significance of the event’s agricultural aspects.

“We’re preserving a piece of the past that not everybody is interested in anymore.”

Demare isn’t the only lifelong volunteer. Glen Beamish, 37, has volunteered and attended the festival since he was nine months old, he said.

Beamish’s parents started going to the museum and the festival in the mid-1970s, and Beamish carried on the tradition with his own four children. The day before the activities kicked off, they were helping out with last-minute preparations.

“It’s something that I try to pass on to my kids, and my kids have been very excited,” Beamish said.

While Beamish said he lends a hand wherever he’s needed during the event, he specifically pointed out that he helps with the steam parade and even restored a tractor one year.

Beamish said he enjoys seeing all the people who come out and have a good time and encouraged anybody who hasn’t been before to check it out.

Daily reunion passes are $20 for adults, $10 for children six to 12 years old and free for children five and under. There are also family passes, four-day passes and rodeo passes available.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com