A little more than a year after he first had the idea to develop a memorial honouring Dauphin’s participation in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and the thousands of airmen who trained at two bases in the community, Al Gray is preparing to unveil the fruits of his efforts.

Set for Aug. 27, the Airport Memorial 80 unveiling will take place in two parts, Gray said.

“We’ll be meeting at the cemetery at about 10:30 in the morning and we will be unveiling a commemorative plaque listing the names of the 15 airmen that lie at rest at Riverside Cemetery. They are 15 of the 49 that were killed here while training,” Gray said “As well, at the cemetery we will be dedicating two granite benches, one in the old veterans section where the airmen are buried and one in the new veterans section.”

Later in the day people will gather at the airport for a ceremony which will begin at 1 p.m., last for approximately 30 minutes and will culminate with the unveiling of the monuments.

“We are flanking the Barker Monument with two five-foot-by-three-foot pieces of granite. They will give the history of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, they will give the history of the two air schools. And on the rear of both is going to be a list of the 29 airmen that were killed in service at the south airport at the service flight training school, and the 20 airmen that were killed at the bombing and gunnery school,” Gray said, adding the two schools trained 9,000 of the 131,000 airmen trained as part of the plan.

“That’s what we are doing to commemorate and memorialize Dauphin’s and Paulson’s role in the air training plan.”

Following the dedication, Gray has a special treat planned as three vintage military aircraft will be on hand courtesy of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon.

The Harvard, Tiger Moth and Cornell aircraft will sit on the apron for the public to inspect and will offer rides to those wanting the complete historic experience.

The cost of the flight for the Harvard is $400 while the Tiger Moth and Cornell are each $280, Gray said, adding those flying must also purchase a $30 museum membership which covers the flight insurance.

The fees are simply cost recovery and a tax deductible receipt will be issued, Gray said.

“These flights have to be pre-booked. They want at least four flights per aircraft booked and I’ve currently got four of the 12 flights a booked,” he said, adding he hopes to further include the aircraft in the days events by way of a low level flyover during the morning dedication at the cemetery. “These pilots are seasoned, well-practiced pilots. What they do is they fly these as the dedicated pilots and they fly these aircraft around to all sorts of air shows throughout the summer.”

The flights will begin at 10 a.m., however, the planes will remain on the ground during the airport ceremony.

Anyone interested in booking a flight can email Gray at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

“We’re going to encourage people to bring their lawn chairs because there’s only going to be a finite amount of seating available. If they want to bring their lawn chairs and set them up on the grass that’s fine,” Gray said, adding he is hoping for good weather. “It’s a mist or shine event. If there’s a torrential rainfall we do not have an alternate day. It’s going to be that day or not at all. The monuments are going to be there they may end up going without an official unveiling.

“This is definitely something that we’re really hoping is going to fly.”

With the beautiful weather and the strong support from sponsors and the public, it is evident to Kevin Boese the return of the Gilbert Plains- Grandview Agricultural Society’s Fair and Rodeo was meant to be.

The society president said considering the event has not been held for two years, he could not be more pleased with the result.

“I think it went really, really well. The gates were busy. It was well attended, the stands were full and we had beautiful weather the entire time,” Boese said. “Everything went very smoothly.”

The two years off did present some minor challenges for organizers as some minor details went unaddressed.

“Considering that we haven’t had a fair for two years we had kind of forgotten how to run one, but in the end everything went very smoothly,” he said. “The beer gardens were full, the sun was hot and everybody had a great time.”

Participation in the rodeo was tremendous, Boese added, with more than 200 contestants registered, along with 18 chuckwagons and 13 chariots. That was a nice surprise for Boese, who worried the cost of travel might be too much for some competitors.

“With the high gas prices that we’ve been having I was a bit concerned about people driving and showing up,” he said. “But it didn’t seem too offensive. I noticed that a bunch of guys were carpooling together and they made it work.”

The results of the chuckwagon and chariot races is available on the Manitoba Professional Chuckwagon and Chariot Association website while rodeo results will be available soon on the Heartland Rodeo Association website, Boese said. On the fair side of the equation things went well with the trade show and craft show both proving to be popular stops. Also popular was the Show and Shine Car Show in the arena and the Manitoba Junior Hockey League champion Dauphin Kings booth which saw players displaying the Turnbull Cup and posing for pictures with fans.

Other fair highlights included the light horse events and kids activities centred around the petting zoo.

Boese said plans are to grow the fair side of weekend in the coming years.

“It was a great way to start out but it’ll definitely be better and maybe arranged a little bit better, so it’s very good for next year,” Boese said, adding the time away made organizers a little rusty, but things worked out in the end. “There was just little things that we maybe kind of forgot to do and just made it a little bit more difficult on the volunteers to try and kind of step up and do things on the go that we forgot. But we powered it through and it went very well.”

Like other events which have returned following the pandemic, securing volunteers was somewhat of a concern heading in, but the people involved made it work, Boese said.

“We definitely could have used a few more volunteers, But boy oh boy the ones that showed up, did they ever work hard to get stuff done,” he said adding dedication to, and support for the event is what makes it work “Everything just went very well thanks to all the volunteers and everybody that supported us and all the great sponsorships. We have a huge team of the sponsorships that we rely on throughout the Parkland and we just couldn’t do it without them either.”

That kind of support invigorates organizers, Boese said, and they are already back at work planning for next year.

“I already sent out a group message this morning about writing down ideas to get bigger and different for next year, so it’s fresh in our minds,” he said, adding the success this year shows organizers that people want to see the event continue.

“The stands were packed full both days. We had great attendance, zero complaints about any of that. It was very well attended.”

Planning and executing a world class music festival is a lot like riding a bike - it doesn’t matter if you haven’t done it for awhile, muscle memory kicks in and everything comes flooding back.

At least that is the experience for Dauphin’s Countryfest organizers who brought Canada’s longest running country music festival back to Selo Ukraina after a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There might have been some rust on day one, festival president Ann Ransom said, but by day two everyone was “back in the groove.”

“Of course, there is always going to be a few things where you think ‘right, I forgot about that’ or ‘how did we do that in the past?’,” Ransom said. “Everybody was pitching in and everybody was helping each other out. We have a really, really, really good team. Everybody rolls up their sleeves and everybody pitches in. When you need somebody you are never on your own. We work really well together, so it has made it a lot easier to shake off the cobwebs and get going again.”

In fact the return of the festival exceeded all expectations, Ransom said, adding she was cautiously optimistic heading into the weekend. Comments organizers received from patrons throughout the weekend were encouraging, Ransom said, adding the smaller crowd this year was a highlight for those attending and is something organizers will put on the table for discussion when it comes to the future of Countryfest.

“Because it was truly a unique experience that we hadn’t had before because we have always had the big, big crowds and that just doesn’t feel the same,” she said. “This a little bit more personable and it really just had a different vibe this year. And we would like to replicate that for future festivals.”

Of course, limiting crowds affects income and it is a fine balancing act to a combination that works, Countryfest general manager Rob Waloschuk added.

“We’ve made adjustments in some things like the entertainment, the production, all of that sort of stuff. We’ve tried to play both sides of it. We’re going to have less income we know that, so how do we how do we make it work on this other side? So we’ve been working hard at trying to do that,” he said.

One of the big changes this year was a return to a three-day festival with Thursday night set aside for an appreciation evening in honour of festival patrons who rolled over their tickets for Countryfest’s two-year hiatus in 2020 and 2021.

“We went back to what we originally started this festival as, a three-day festival. However, we made that Thursday available to everybody who kept their tickets,” Waloschuk said. “So many people came up to us and said ‘we just want to thank you for doing this for us.’ And I said to them that ‘we want to thank you for doing this for us. You saved us’.”

That nod to the past was a big theme of the 2022 festival, Ransom added.

“We had this whole ‘Return to the Hill’, but I think we also had a return to our roots. We have really found a core of people for our festival who will always come out and support us and we just really need to recognize that and thank them for it. Applaud them for helping us out and knowing how important it is to keep this festival going. “Those that really truly believe in the festival have shown up and lots of kudos to them. It has just been fantastic.”

Other changes made for this year around vendors and the use of tokens rather than cash for purchasing food and merchandise have, after some initial pushback, worked as predicted, Waloschuk added. It was always the plan to cut back somewhat on vendors to make things more viable for all vendors, he said.

“This year we knew would be a little slower than normal, so cut a few back and help those vendors that are here actually make more money. And that’s been successful,” he said, adding one vendor, a festival veteran, sold out of her weekend supplies by the end of Friday night, restocked for the weekend the next day and sold out again that night. “So that’s kind of been the story everywhere.”

Ransom added vendors are already signing up to return next year.

“From the festival patrons there has been lots of comments about the variety and the unique items that we have up there. Which is always kind of nice,” she said. “It’s great feedback for us because, of course, we changed something. We went a different way. We are just trying to stay at pace with other festivals and other events in what they are doing. And we are finding it works for us. It is good to see.”

Change is always hard, Ransom said, but the results speak for themselves.

“Obviously, we had to make money this year to keep the festival going. And we didn’t want to do that unsustainably, or by causing hardship for others, so we came up with a system that we thought would be fair and the feedback has been really good,” she said. “The vendors definitely bought into the process and are fully supportive of it. And it is great that they are already interested in next year.”

And that means big things for the community, Waloschuk said, reflecting on all of the development and support Countryfest has provided Dauphin over the last three decades.

“I just want to make sure everybody realizes how hard this organization has worked for this community and how much it means for this community. I think that gets lost sometimes and when it’s been gone for a couple years,” he said, adding the festival did have some difficulty securing volunteers this year. “All the local sponsors have stepped up, and beyond what they would normally do, absolutely stepped up in more ways than just their sponsorship, just to make sure this happens. We can thank them by doing certain things throughout the year and having a reception and stuff here. But I just want to thank them publicly like this.”

That support and confidence adds up to a bright future for Countryfest and the community.

“We are back, baby, and we are excited to be back,” Ransom said, “We are definitely alive and well and healthy and that bodes well for the city of Dauphin.”

Organizers, she said, are ready to go and feel like they have turned the corner.

“We will see some changes. The board of directors will be busy meeting after the festival, once we have all caught up on our sleep, just to debrief and say this worked well, we need to fix this. We are always looking at other festivals to see what they are doing and listening to our patrons. We are constantly trying to be innovative and change things, but also keeping our core values in place,” she said.

“We weathered the storm and we are starting to pick up steam and we are going to be in a good place.”