The Prince George Exhibition, affectionately known as the PGX, joined a select group this year.
The exhibition is now one of 17 centenarian community fairs in the province. The PGX joined that august company alongside Aldergrove Fair Days, which celebrated its centennial July 20 to July 22 this year.
The Prince George Exhibition is the oldest community fair in B.C. north of Salmon Valley.
Crossing the 100-year barrier puts the PGX in the company of fairs like the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) in Vancouver, Agassiz Fall Fair and Abbotsford Agrifair.
The PGX still has a ways to go to catch up to some of the province's supercentenarian fairs like the 145-year-old Saanich Fair, 144-year-old Cowichan Exhibition and 138-year-old Comox Valley Exhibition.
However, in a province as young -in terms of European colonization, at least -as B.C., for anything to be 100 years old is quite an accomplishment.
For a community event, run largely by volunteers, to still be around 100 years later is even more of an accomplishment.
The entertainment offered by community fairs is as analog as your get: mechanical midway rides, rodeo, live music, racing pigs, dancing, agricultural shows, tasty deep-fried treats, lumberjack skill demonstrations, fireworks, carnival games, ventriloquists and more.
Many of the attractions are not much different than would have been offered in the first decade of the PGX.
It's a testimony to the enduring appeal of the community fair that new generations are still lured by the barker call of the exhibition.
Edward Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes probably didn't make your summer reading list, Hollywood blockbusters no longer features the slapstick antics of the Keystone Kops, and ragtime music no longer makes top-40 playlists, but the Prince George Exhibition is still going strong after 100 years.
There is something viscerally, wonderfully real about the clamouring noise, garish colours and pungent smells of a fairground in full swing.
The most sophisticated video games or 3-D movies can't compete with the fun of a simple kid's ring toss game, the action and drama of the bull riding, or the camaraderie and communal feeling of an old-fashioned country dance.
Of course, in order to keep the fun of the Prince George Exhibition alive requires people to buy their tickets and go. It also requires volunteers and community support - often in the form of money.
The financial challenges facing the Prince George Agricultural and Historical Association, which hosts the the event, have been the subject of many stories in The Citizen.
In June city council agreed to renegotiate the terms of a $45,000 loan the city provided the society in 2010. The association had requested the city forgive the outstanding $36,000 balance of the loan.
While the PGX received a surprise $30,000 in additional grants from the province this year, it's not a long-term solution to funding the event.
What the long-term solution is, and how it should be funded, is up for debate. Certainly the City of Prince George coffers are well that is growing increasingly dry.
But if the residents of Prince George want to pass the greasy, smelly, noisy fun that is the PGX on to future generations of kids, a solution must be found.
- Associate news editor, Arthur Williams
