'Really tight timeline': Manitoba Stampede faced challenges in its return

The Manitoba Stampede was back in the saddle after it was forced to take a pandemic break; however, planning its comeback wasn’t without its challenges as lot of effort went into giving a festive boost to both the town of Morris and fair attendees.

The Manitoba Stampede returned this past weekend with rides, rodeo, and fair food.

“It’s awesome. It’s been way too long,” said Dave Yonker, one of the attendees at the Manitoba Stampede.

“We did Stampede, and we had to do more Stampede rodeo because this is what we do every summer.”

For the Valley Agricultural Society, which hosts the Manitoba Stampede, the event is about far more than just a good time.

Brian Wiebe, the society’s president, said the Manitoba Stampede is vital to the organization.

“We’ve had a tough couple of years as a non-profit organization. We rely on our events to help us with our infrastructure and maintaining of the grounds, as well as hosting the events,” he said.

“To be back is just a huge thing.”

Wiebe said bringing back the event wasn’t easy, as the Valley Agricultural Society had to wait for health restrictions to end, and also had to deal with flooding stopping volunteers from getting into town.

“We were on a really tight timeline,” he said.

“We had about 11 months of work to do over four months.”

Wiebe noted the society was able to pull off the task, and the community is feeling the benefits.

“I’ve been speaking with business owners all weekend, they have been swamped --the restaurants, the hotels,” he said.

“To the best of my knowledge, this has been decades since we’ve had every single hotel room in town booked solid.”

Attendees were also pleased about the event’s return.

“It is wonderful to be out and about and doing something and not just sitting in the house,” said Mary-Anne Kasprick.