Vintage Power Machines Threshing Festival keeps things fresh

The Vintage Power Machines Museum south of Prince Albert hosted a successful 42nd Annual Threshing Festival on July 13 and 14.

The Museum had great crowds over the two days of the festival. Organizers said the goal is to keep traditions alive.

“We have our two day show once a year and we’re hoping for next spring that we’ll be able to get two summer students to run the site all summer,” Vintage Power Machines president Alan Andal said. “Then we’ll have things going (on) all summer with regular members as well with them (students).”

This was the festival’s third year back to their regular two-day event after holding a mini festival in 2021.Each day starts with a pancake breakfast and Sunday included a devotional with Hubert Smith in the church on site.

The main event on Sunday was the popular vintage tractor pulls, which used the rig from the Melfort Agricultural Society to run the event.

Organizers hope to add to the site in the coming months. They are in the process of completing a new Canteen building on site with seating for 65 and a brand new kitchen.

“We’re hoping to have done by next spring,” Andal said. “Right now, we’re probably $40,000 short. We just received a check from the Cosmos the other day and they donated $5,000 towards our project which brought it down to about the $40,000.”

The project has been ongoing for three years. Andal said having volunteers build the new canteen has helped keep costs down. The building continues to pass every inspection.

“It’s probably a half million dollar building if it was done professionally, and we’re hoping to finish it for about $180,000,” he explained. “The average member that’s building on it is 82 years-old.”

The Festival is always trying new attractions including the additions of axe throwing, which was quite popular on Saturday.There was also a family from Tisdale who brought a small automobile and a tractor.

This was also the first year that the Klassic Kruizers Kar Klub were able to come with classic automobiles.

“We had tried other years but couldn’t get them,” Andal said. “This year they didn’t want a trophy for themselves each in the event. They just said, ‘give us a People’s Choice award. Let everybody just be able to vote. Somebody can come in even if they don’t belong to the

Kruisers.’”

This year they also brought in model car racers.

“The one car—I don’t know if he’s bringing it or not—but it’ll do 50 miles an hour, He may try it on the straightaway where the sled truck is and see what it looks like going down,” Andal said.

“We’re just adding a little and trying to get a little more each year.”

They have also constructed a bakery building two years ago and hope to start baking from that building in the future.

Andal said the organization’s membership is down this year, but that’s a common trend lots of volunteer groups are seeing.

“We are going to try and see if we can pick up more volunteers and help even on a volunteer basis, a lot more and if we can’t get them as Members, then maybe they’ll start as a volunteer and down the road might become members,” Andal explained.

He added that he was not even aware of the site until he moved to Prince Albert 24 years ago.

“We’ve got a perfect site. We could do so much here. We’ve got the old caboose now that we want to try and totally restore, we’d have to tear it totally apart and restore it to look like it again. It shouldn’t have been left this long,” he said.

He explained that the restoration project would cost around $5,000 in material alone for the caboose.

If you want a tour when they are not open, you can contact curator Percy Halliwell to set up a tour.

“I hope more guys will start coming out and if they can’t make it this year, hopefully they’ll come out next year or the year after,” Andal said.

michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca

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