It’s about more than tractors at threshermen’s reunion

BRANDON — The Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion and Stampede will sport a carnival-style midway for the first time in decades when it opens this weekend.

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 and Stampede after flooding forced evacuations and caused extensive damage.

The Swan River event was supposed to take place from July 23-26 — the same dates as the threshermen’s reunion.

Its co-ordinators have been looking to bring a midway to the Austin event for several years.

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 Friday at 4 p.m., with noon starts the following Saturday and Sunday.

The event typically attracts 15,000 people every year.

Elliot Sims, a volunteer with the long-running Austin event, said organizers hope the midway will be a strong draw.

“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.”

The event has partnered with Versatile, an agricultural machinery manufacturer based out of Winnipeg.

As part of its 60th 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. Sims said the museum will have several Versatile tractors on hand, from older models like the original D100, up to their most recent vehicles.

“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.

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.

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 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.

The rodeo is scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday starting at 7:30 p.m. at the grandstand.

The museum tells the story of agriculture in the province. One of the ways it does 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 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.”

— Brandon Sun