Old Home Week veterans say it feels good to be back as festival kicks off
CBC
Old Home Week is back in full force for the first time since the pandemic began — and to many Islanders, it feels like a homecoming.
The week-long festival kicked off on Friday at Charlottetown's Eastlink Centre and Red Shores Racetrack & Casino, with a schedule that included cattle-penning and barrel-racing events, livestock competitions and other family-friendly shows.
A P.E.I. summer tradition, Old Home Week has been held for over a century. But the pandemic put a stop to it: in 2020 the festival was cancelled, and there were only limited events in 2021.
"Feels nice after COVID to be back and showing in the ring again," said Kirsten Kouwenberg, a livestock competitor who was exhibiting two of her farm's cows on Friday.
"I've been here since I was 9, so I come here pretty much every year and just love showing here."
Mariah Smith, a cattle breeder at Eastside Holsteins, said she's been coming to the show since she was 16.
"We're so happy to be back. Everything is awesome. We're around our friends and fellow breeders and it's just great to be back exhibiting animals were so proud of," she said.
"We've been coming for years, long before our children had been born," said Chris Baker, a barrel racer from Cape Breton.
Baker has travelled a lot for competitions. But he said Old Home Week is special for his family.
"My son, I asked where he wanted to go and he said, 'Old Home Week.' They're used to coming pretty much every year before the COVID outbreak," Baker said.
"They love seeing the cows, ... they don't see a lot of cows on our farm. But the racing itself is a lot of fun and they enjoy it and we enjoy it and the horses enjoy it."
Some Islanders, however, are at the festival for the first time ever. Alice Bruce was at the Eastlink Centre on Friday with her son.
"He just turned three this summer so he's actually never been here," she said. "So we've been explaining it on the drive in, and I think he's pretty excited to see what it's all about."
It's not Konor Younker's first rodeo. Younker, who is 10, has been participating in the tractor pull competition and showing cows since he was about five.
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