After last year's fair didn't have much of its usual events to it, this past weekend's Fair Days was a return to normal. With events Friday night including a firework show and a couple of drive in movies, and a full parade around town on Saturday, Chair of the organizing committee Dakota Ekman could not be happier with how the weekend went.

"We had a really good turn out down in the valley for our movie and fireworks. I think for our fireworks we had probably close to 200 vehicles coming down, the valley was packed. There was people parked elsewhere in town enjoying the fireworks. The movie went really well, and the parade was really well received. There was a lot of people that really enjoyed seeing the parade coming by their house."

While something like a community fair may not seem like a big deal to some, Ekman says that over the weekend they saw just how important those community events are. He was one of the leaders in the parade and being able to do something for groups that haven't been able to get out and about much in the last year was important to the community of Biggar, and their reactions showed just how important coming together as a community can be.

"There's nothing like seeing the smiles on kid's faces. I was up in one of the first floats and just seeing the smiles on everyone, it's really heartwarming just to see how much people really were looking forward to a parade. A lot of the seniors of course don't have as good as mobility, so being able to go by like Westview and Norwest apartments down on 3rd Ave West and just seeing those smiles, that was really the awesome part."

This year's fair felt like a return to normal for the community, but Ekman says that the plans they ran this year are small compared to what they want to do moving forward. This year felt like a celebration of still being able to do things together even through restrictions and other challenges put in place are still there, so next year's celebration will have a bit of a different feel to it that should make the event that much bigger.

"We've got real high aspirations and big plans for next year to celebrate being able to get out of this COVID situation. Now that everyone is starting to get vaccinated, we're just about out or we're just about to the point now where we can really be gathering in big groups again, so next year is really going to be a huge celebration for our community to say 'we made through it COVID, everything is alright', and we'll be able to really enjoy what makes our community so great."