Cones and Carnivals – A Perfect Pairing!
The
first agricultural society in Canada was founded in 1765 in Nova Scotia and in
1792, the Agricultural Society of Upper Canada was established in Niagara on
the Lake. By the mid-1800s, agricultural
societies were springing up all over Ontario, and these groups enthusiastically
planned and participated in enormously popular fairs that were a way to promote
and celebrate advances in agriculture. The
Rockton Agricultural Society first held a fair in October 1852 offering an
impressive $194.50 in prize money. The
fair was so successful and popular, that in 1878, local author Andrew Kernighan
commented that the Rockton fair should be called the “World’s Fair” because the
whole world seemed to attend. This fair
and others like it have continued to be an important tradition in Ontario and across
Canada.
Although
small travelling circuses had been around since the mid-19th
century, it was the tremendous success and popularity of the midway at the
Chicago World’s Fair that spurred the development of large numbers of
travelling carnivals and related attractions.
By 1905, there were close to fifty carnival companies operating in the
United States, and many of these companies traveled north to take advantage of
the Canadian market. The rapid growth of
railways lines facilitated the movement of these carnivals. Carnival-like amusements were also added to
the traditional offerings of agricultural or historical festivals. The largely attended agricultural fairs
guaranteed crowds for the carnivals, and generated significant revenue for the
fairs. It was a sometimes uneasy, but
mutually beneficial partnership.
Carnivals
and related fairs were, and continue to be, places where one could enjoy “fun”
foods not normally eaten. At the turn of
the century, carnival and fair visitors could enjoy many of the foods we still
associate with carnivals and fairs today – ice cream, cotton candy, caramel
apples, popcorn, soda and lemonade. Fun
seekers also snacked on baked potatoes and pickles.
Ice
cream cones were, and continue to be, an enduring feature of fairs and
carnivals. Since their dramatic rise in
popularity following their introduction at the 1904 St. Louis world’s fair,
this sweet, cool treat will forever be associated with the delights of a day at
a carnival.
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