Harvest Fairs ~ A Connection of Collection in Edmonton

By Dorian Oliver-Lyons

Harvest fairs are an ancient tradition, going back 10,000 years to the beginnings of agriculture. They celebrate all of the different kinds of food harvested in the local area each year and typically include cooking dishes made from foods from the harvest, different contests during the fair, and more! This is why different places celebrate their harvests at different times of the year. It depends on when their food has grown and is ripe for the picking.

Edmonton’s history with harvesting food can be traced back through local Indigenous histories, predating European contact by thousands of years. While it was not farming in the same sense as we know today, the numerous Indigenous Nations & Communities who live here would harvest, gather & collect what they needed from the land as they found it. In their traditions & beliefs you always give thanks in respect to all the forms of life that also call the area home. The Metis share celebrations and hunting traditions around this time as well, in the form of Buffalo Hunts which is a harvest of its own. These are seen as a celebration of the earth's bounty provided by the Creator during the Fall Equinox and celebrating all that was harvested during the season in preparation of the winter to come. It is seen as a time of balance and reflection before the cold months to come.

 After Europeans came during the Furtrade, and later began to settle the area, riverlots were developed and much of the land was turned into pastures & fields. As Edmonton evolved from a Fort, to a Village, to a Town and eventually a City, all those that came to call the area home brought traditions with them, and in 1879 the Edmonton Agricultural Society put together the first of Edmonton’s Harvest Fairs and called it the “Edmonton Exhibition”. The Group raised $323.00 (approx. $10,260.77 in 2025 CAD Dollars) to set up and run the Fair. It was held just outside the walls of fifth and final Fort Edmonton which, at that time, stood on the south field of our current legislation grounds - this is the same one we have a recreation of at Fort Edmonton Park! Its main purpose was to sell the produce of the Northwest to the country as a whole and was one of the first of its kind organized in the Northwest Area. It included displays of grain, vegetables, and women’s handiwork for sale & show and had items from Edmonton, St. Albert, Fort Saskatchewan & Sturgeon Valley Farm areas. It was such a hit that early newspapers even commented “those who did not attend felt sorry for it…”, showing just how big an event this was even at the very beginning. It did so well it even encouraged Calgary and Saskatoon to start their own Harvest Fairs 1886 and a few years later in 1894 Regina joined it!

While the Edmonton Exhibition moved from a Fall & Harvest Celebration to a Spring Fair in 1899 it retained its focus on agriculture. As the Edmonton Exhibition has continued to grow over the years it has come to have a new but still similar celebration, in a sense. We no longer have to prepare and package food to last the cold months, we can now get fresh produce throughout the year, at plus 30 degrees or minus 40 degrees. Today the Edmonton Exhibition is still one of the largest ‘Harvest Fairs’ in the country even if the one we know today now starts in mid-July &  looks very different from its beginnings. In 1964 it saw a name change to ‘Klondike Days’ and for our younger readers, it is what we now know as ‘K-Days’.

We at Fort Edmonton Park hope to capture both the modern and historic iterations of this classic festival as we hold our own version of a Harvest Fair at the end of August! Join us in food, drink & fun as we celebrate the history of the Harvest Fair. We hope to see you there!