The board that runs the event met Monday night and approved a proposal Red Shores had submitted on Friday.
Old Home Week’s board was I initially notified its access to the Red Shores for the midway would be reduced by 15 per cent this year. Red Shores needs the space to erect tents as part of hosting the World Driving Championship.
The problem was there was no assurance Old Home Week would regain the space in 2018.
That has now changed. Old Home Week is getting the space back.
“Oh, of course it is,’’ Sandra Hodder Acorn, manager of Old Home Week, said when asked if it was a relief. “The board is very relieved as well. It wasn’t an easy decision. It wasn’t made off the cuff. It was hours and hours of meetings. (We know) Old Home Week is engrained in every Islander. Every Islander has a memory of Old Home Week.’’
The event, which runs more than a week in August at Eastlink Centre and Red Shores Racetrack and Casino in Charlottetown, includes livestock and other agricultural displays and competitions, as well as a midway and harness racing.
Last week, the Old Home W eek board voted to suspend the event this summer, pending a resolution on the parking lot issue with Red Shores.
Hodder Acorn said Old Home Week and Red Shores, and various other partners, are currently working on a governance model that would oversee the event, Old Home Week, as a whole. Right now, there are three distinct entities working together – Red Shores, harness racing and the exhibition.
“What that governance model will look like at the end we’re not sure.’’
As for Campbell Amusements, they’ll be dealing with 15 per cent less space this year.
Hodder Acorn isn’t sure what kind of reduction that will mean.
She said some from the company will be down to scout the Red Shores parking lot in July.
“(Someone from Campbell Amusements) will be down the first week of July to take a look at the footprint and see what (they) can actually put in.’’
Hodder Acorn said everyone is now turning their attention to where it belongs, “to working with the partners to provide customers, patrons and visitors that come to Old Home Week with the best possible experience’’.
