International Plowing Match and Rural Expo selects Verner for 2019 event: Annual event returns to the North after 10 years, 80,000 expected to attend.

• Author: McKinley, Karen
• Position: NEWS

It may be more than a year away, but preparations are getting underway for one of the biggest agricultural expos in the province as it returns to the North after a decade.

The community of Verner, located about an hour east of Sudbury, has been selected to host the International Plowing Match and Rural Expo.

From Sept. 17 to 21, 2019, the event is expected to attract around 80,000 people to the area with its broad range of offerings, from competitive mechanical and heavy horse plowing to commerce from the more than 600 vendors expected to attend, selling everything from large equipment to household goods and food.

The event also boasts many cultural attractions, including cooking demonstrations, traditional Indigenous dances, live music, games, rodeo events and regional culture showcases.

"We are very excited. We are already asking for volunteers and we put together a committee.

"This is going to be huge for the region's economy as a whole," said Catherine Levac-Lafond, lead co-ordinator for the event at West Nipissing.

"We are just getting started. We have to wait for this year's expo to conclude before we can take vendor submissions and any physical work, however."

She explained the event is usually held in southern Ontario and showcases agriculture in different areas of the province.

This is only the second time in its history that it has been held in the North.

The Nipissing region has a strong agricultural base and they have been working for years to get the expo back to the area.

The last time the expo was in the North was in Earlton, in the Timiskaming District, in 2009.

Logistically speaking, the expo turns an open area into a city. Levac-Lafond said organizers already know they are going to build a small village of 600 tents for vendors and exhibitors, a food court, as well as a trailer park, and gather information for local accommodations like hotels and other trailer parks.

Despite the stress and details, the event will be a major economic driver for the region for years to come.

Levac-Lafond said a survey conducted by...