Despite the rain, the Bowfest Country Fair contests ran for another successful year under a lovely big tent on the festival field. Youth and adults submitted photos, stories and creations as well as bringing their racing slugs to the Country Fair tent.
The Country Fair contests and slug races are one of the oldest traditional parts of Bowfest that have been part of the festival the most number of years! Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to all the participants who entered this year to keep this tradition running!
Winners: the Tallest flower grown on Bowen by an adult was Lyn van Lidth de Jeude’s 11’ 7” sunflower which was supported by an incredibly sturdy stem!
The Biggest (heaviest) Squash grown on Bowen by youth was Eli Manning’s 38lb pumpkin, followed by the winning 8.3lb heirloom striped zucchini grown by youth Wesley and Sarah Jessop! The adult with the biggest squash was Sarah Haxby’s Ambassador zucchini which weighed in at almost 9lb!
The Strangest Looking Vegetable or fruit grown on Bowen was won by Keary and Connie for their outrageous heirloom-variety white carrots and Em and Charlie for their slug shaped cucumber which was submitted with a story.
The Best Photo of Bees were taken by adult Keona Hammond and son Jack Hammond whose lovely portraits of bees on thistles won two first-place ribbons!
The Best Photo of a Bowen Island Slug was a tough one to judge! The white spirit slug got an honorable mention, but Angela Huxham’s incredible photo of a slug with its mouth wide open won the adult photo first-place ribbon. The winning youth photo was a lovely portrait of a banana slug taken by Isaiah Lee. Isaiah submitted a story with the beautiful photo explaining that he had named the slug ‘sushi’ because you could hear him chewing on leaves, and that he looked like he was wearing a (slime) coat!
The Favourite Farm Animal or Domestic Animal Award was won by Kaia Matheson for her very moving story about the very old Endswell farm horse and what the old horse means to her.
The Lego Contest was another tough one to judge as there were so many fabulous entries that impressed the public and the judges. Kevin Harding’s elaborate medieval farm design and detailed description came in first place winning the most votes from the public, judges and youth judges.
The Fiber Arts Finest had a lovely selection of entries. Bonita Schaly’s hand-felted dragon took first place for design and for delightfully celebrating the Bowfest-theme of mythical creatures from around the world.
The Slug Races went well with a very large group of slug jockeys and slug race-enthusiasts huddled around the table hiding from the rain and keen to see the races. This year was the first year that a slugfie-stick was deployed to take video of the races and were wondering if next year anyone would like to help to stream the races online??
Although the non-stop enthusiastic cheering for the first half hour of the race may have contributed to a slow start to race one. In the end Morgan and Shelby’s well-trained and well-loved (it was the only slug to arrive in a hand-made, hand-decorated travelling box,) “Black Beauty” came in first place during race one, winning by multiple slug-lengths. Slug Race number two was won by Keona and Jack’s “Lighting” who slimed right past the finish line in approx. 26 minutes, which is a very fast racing time for an Arion aterslu slug (aka European black slug). Fun facts: Arion aterslu slugs are an invasive species that range in colour from black to white. In the 18th C they are documented as having been used as grease on axels of wooden carts in Sweden. At Bowfest, as is the custom, all racing slugs were returned to their original habitat after the races.
The 2015 Bowfest Country Fair Tent was made possible thanks to the Bowfest Community Fair Association and it was supported by Bowen Agriculture Alliance volunteers and community volunteers including: Sarah Haxby, Matt Matheson, Marysia McGillvray, Helen Wallwork, a panel of judges, the Young Farmers of Bowen Program, BICS student garden club, Bowen Farm, Fox Glove Farm, Vine and Garden Catering, and the BAA Farmers Market & Tail Gate Sales. We thank everyone who volunteered to help us keep the Bowfest Country Fair tradition going!
