{"id":3940,"date":"2013-09-18T16:09:31","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T20:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3940"},"modified":"2013-09-25T15:38:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T19:38:11","slug":"the-royal-where-farmers-are-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/the-royal-where-farmers-are-the-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"The Royal: where farmers are the stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Constance Scrafield <\/strong><\/p>\n

All the elements that a person loves about the Royal Winter Fair will be there this year, but there will be some real changes to delight this year\u2019s visitors.
\nMarketing manager, Karen Poncelet, told us earlier this week in a telephone interview, \u201cThis year, we are more focused on the animals and the great way they contribute to our lives.\u201d
\nThis year, the excitement about animals is centred in the President\u2019s Choice Royal Animal Theatre, the big news around the Royal this year in many ways. An installation of 2,500 seats, it is an area able to accommodate a large audience and big enough to show off the action the animals will provide.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s an actual theatre,\u201d Ms Poncelet assured us.
\nThis arrangement replaces and augments both the Super Dogs and the Spirit of the Horse rings. In addition to the dogs, there are the Super Goats \u2013 just imagine! Along with the amazing animals come several amazing people.
\nSylvia Zerbini, formerly with Cavallia, is bringing her white Arabians to demonstrate her wonderful bond with her equine family. She and they will be performing both in the Animal Theatre, as well as the evening horse shows in the Coliseum.
\nGary MacLean, an Australian \u2018Horse Whisperer\u2019, will show how simple it is to communicate and work with a horse to calm and train it. His method of communicating with a horse on its own terms will fascinate you.
\nVictoria Stilwell uses the same basic principal with dogs, once again understanding their mode of communication and adapting herself to that in her version of dog whispering.
\nMeanwhile, Lauren Borden communicates with all animals on a telepathic level. Do not let yourself be cynical about this. Come and see the lady prove her abilities. It is a gift she has had from childhood and she will surprise the most doubtful.
\nAll these remarkable people will be showing their talents at the Animal Theatre.
\nDogs will herd sheep; horse breeders will trot out their equines; Jack Russell Terriers will race; and there will be many more surprises. All the action in the theatre is free of charge and, this year, as Ms Poncelet promised, \u201cEveryone will get a seat.\u201d
\nMs Poncelet herself is a \u201cloyal Royal person,\u201d who has been coming as a visitor to the Royal since she was a child, although she only saw for the first time one of the big international horse shows for which the Royal is famous two years ago.
\n\u201cI saw an Olympic rider jumping a horse over a huge jump and then over a brick wall \u2013 and I couldn\u2019t believe it. I told them, you can\u2019t imagine how it is for a person to see this for the first time,\u201d said Ms Poncelet.
\nWhen asked what she did do at the Royal all those years if she did not go to the horse show, she explained, \u201cWe came to see all the other animals. We loved the chickens and all the things that go on at the Royal.\u201d
\nThe food focus at the Royal this time is on how the food gets to the table.
\nToo many urban people never consider what it takes for the mountain of food at the supermarkets to actually arrive.
\nThey have no idea about the conditions and labour that is required to raise and bring the crops from the fields and place them within easy reach for purchase and preparation.
\nThere will be the Amazing Food Journey, which will be built like a maze, following this amazing trip of seeds in the ground on the farm to carrots on the plate, as it were.
\n\u201cThere\u2019ll be an area called \u2018Agtivity\u2019 with a sand box full of grain and all sorts of things for children to do to understand how food is grown,\u201d Ms Poncelet told us, \u201cand 10 education centres for talking to people who grow the food. They\u2019re the real experts. This is For the Love of Food. \u201d
\nNaturally, cooking has been a great part of the Royal for the last few years and it is again this year, with some variations on the theme.
\nMs Poncelet explained, \u201cOne of the chef challenges has already begun. In four communities around Ontario, there are competitions amongst three restaurants in each city to see and the chef will come to the Royal. They are Brooklyn, Paris, Niagara and Collingwood.
\nSome major hotels are also competing in the Chef\u2019s Challenge
\n\u201cOn the cooking stage,\u201d she told us, \u201cthe folks from George Brown College are coming for demonstrations but with more participation with the audience. This will be the place for conversations about sustainability.\u201d
\nNaturally, there will be plenty of places to eat and many vendors most willing to get you going with your Christmas (and otherwise) shopping.
\nAn overall three year plan has been put together by the Royal\u2019s executives, Gabe Simms, Ms Poncelet and CEO, Sandra Banks.
\nWith it, they hope to inspire young people to want to come to this fair, the largest indoor agricultural fair in North America, with a lot of years behind it: a Toronto tradition.
\n\u201cPeople should not miss the Royal this year,\u201d Ms Poncelet declared. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot that\u2019s new. This is like the Olympics of Agriculture.\u201d
\nTickets go on sale Thursday on the Royal\u2019s website, www.royalfair.org.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All the elements that a person loves about the Royal Winter Fair will be there this year, but there will be some real changes to delight this year\u2019s visitors. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-11y","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 16:50:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}