What's New?!

What's New?!

The Corn & Apple Festival Needs You!

The Morden Corn & Apple Festival is searching for volunteers, some with specialized skills to help with activities associated with Morden's signature event.

The Festival Board of Directors have initiated an Economic Impact Assessment to determine the Festival's worth to attendees, the community and the region. We require data in the form of person-to-person surveys, vehicle and attendee counts to be collected during the 3 days of the Festival. We require volunteers to help with this data collection. Whether you could help for an hour or longer, for one or all 3 days, we would love to hear from you.

The Morden Corn & Apple Festival strives to keep all our attendees safe and to do this we work with local businesses to provide a First Aid Station near our Information Trailer. We invite anyone with first Aid or First Responder training including student or retired nurses (whether or not your license has expired) to volunteer to help provide First Aid during the Festival. Selling space to vendors on Stephen Street is an integral part of the Festival. This requires much coordination to make sure all the vendors get to Morden and into their allotted space on time and with as little frustration as possible. To accomplish this we require volunteers to direct and assist where necessary. Much of this activity takes place on Thursday evening prior to the Festival and is almost as much fun as the Festival itself!

The Chairperson for our Free Historical Bus Tours is also looking for some more volunteer help this year. She is looking for step-on Guides to ride in air conditioned buses, read tour scripts and answer questions about our wonderful Town of Morden as well as assistants to help coordinate the buses, tour guides and passengers during the Festival. There may also be a need for drivers with a Class 1, 2, 3 or 4 license to drive a 24 passenger limousine bus. All positions will be organized in shifts.

It is said that many hands make light work and the same is true for Festival volunteer positions - the more volunteers we have, the shorter the work commitment. For more information and to volunteer for these or other positions, please call the Morden Corn & Apple Festival office at 823-CORN (2676) or email info@cornandapple.com.

For more information contact:
Ross Ariss, Vice Chairperson - 822-3410
Cheryl Link - 823-2676

June 21, 2010 - Morden's Corn & Apple 2010 promises a brilliant mix of local Manitoba talent and cultural experience

The Corn & Apple Festival, Manitoba's premier free street festival is proud to announce an entertainment lineup which is second to none. Designed to honor the provincial 2010 theme of "homecoming" by showcasing Manitoba talent and also recognize the growing cultural diversity of Southern Manitoba, this year's Corn & Apple Festival is not to be missed.

Whos Coming?

This year's Corn & Apple Homecoming Festival 2010 is guaranteed to entertain. We invite you to attend the festival which runs from August 27-29th in beautiful Morden, Manitoba. It's FUN and it's FREE!

June 15, 2010 - Morden Corn & Apple Festival finds a new home

Morden Corn & Apple Festival finds a new home

Today, Morden Corn & Apple Festival Board of Directors President Reg Braun announced that the Festival Office is now sharing office space in St. Thomas Anglican Church at 131 - 8th Street. "We will continue to use the Chamber of Commerce mailing address until we find a permanent location," explains Braun. We have a permanent telephone number 823-CORN (2676), fax number 822-9690, email address info@cornandapple.com and our web site www.cornandapple.com so that we are available in every medium.

The Morden Corn & Apple Festival was started in 1967 by the Morden & District Chamber of Commerce and for 43 years they handled administration and shared office space. In 2010 the Festival contracted with former Chamber Manager Cheryl Link to administer the Festival Board of Directors capital programs as well as the Festival Committee operations.

"The Morden Corn & Apple Festival has taken the next step in our evolution, one that will provide the tools to increase the profile of the Festival and of Morden itself," asserted Braun. "This year we are conducting an Economic Impact Assessment to determine the actual value of the Festival to the community and our surrounding area and in the future we intend to work on strategies to improve traffic flow, parking, crowd movement, etc. This is just the start of many new ideas and opportunities of which we are now better placed to take advantage."

June 4, 2010 - Manitoba Open Barbeque Championship Changes for 2010

Manitoba Open Barbeque Championship Changes for 2010

Significant improvements have been made to the Manitoba Open Barbeque Championship. The Morden Corn & Apple Festival has agreed to take over the financial reigns of the MOBC. This is a big bonus for sponsors as it will give much better exposure throughout the entire festival and will allow committee members to concentrate on putting on a great event.

The MOBC is now sanctioned under the Kansas City Barbecue Society which is the world's largest barbeque association. We understand that our event is the first KCBS competition in North America sanctioned outside the United States. We are all very excited by this as it will help to raise the competitive bar and no doubt bring in even more competition from our neighbours to the south. The contest organizers for 2010 are Bill and Debbie Gage from Chicago, Illinois and we look forward to their participation.

We have also dramatically improved on the competition site by moving to the Lake Minnewasta campground. This new location will give additional space and infrastructure needed to make our competitors very comfortable no matter what size rig they bring. We are also offering the opportunity for competitors (with Government approved mobile kitchens) to sell BBQ to the public from these sites, but you must be pre-approved to do so. Yet another improvement to note is that prize money has been increased to include first to tenth place teams in all four meat categories. The Grand Champion will also receive an automatic invitation (American or Canadian team) to compete in the prestigious Jack Daniels and American Royal competitions in the United States.

Lastly, we are pleased to offer a one-time opportunity for all interested in barbeque to take the KCBS barbeque judge's course that will be held on Saturday, August 28/10 at the competition site. This will give competitors and wanna-be judges an insight into what makes great competition barbeque and prepare them for the next day's competition. The completion of the course gives each participant an official CBJ # (Competition BBQ Judge) which can be used to judge at any KCBS events, as well as a one year membership to the KCBS. It's important to note that this offering will not be repeated as the cost to bring in an official course instructor (from the southern USA) is too restrictive. Please let us know ASAP of your interest as we will cancel the course if demand is low.

Please go to our website at: www.bbqchampionship.ca for all the information you need to get involved with the MOBC or contact Event Producer Perry Hopkins at 204-661-4490 or 204-485-7299 for further information.

October 30, 2009 - Festival Fullfills Commitment To Town

Morden Corn & Apple Festival Fullfills Commitment To Town

Today, Morden Corn & Apple Festival Board of Directors President Reg Braun presented a cheque in the amount of $7,000.00 to Morden Mayor Doug Wilson.

This cheque represents the final payment totaling $35,000.00 as the Festival's contribution toward electrical upgrades on Stephen Street started in the summer of 2004.

President Reg Braun indicated that, "The Morden Corn & Apple Festival is pleased to partner with the Town on projects that benefit the whole community." "We are always open to this kind of co-operation," he continued.

At the time of the agreement the Festival Directors and Morden Council noted that the existing electrical outlets were a patchwork and we were completely maxed out in terms of power. They needed to be replaced to make it easier for volunteers to set up for the Festival and to provide adequate power for all the vendors.

It is interesting to note that the Festival has also installed additional power capacity along the Festival site at our own expense. The funds for this project over the past five years were provided by the sale of Corn & Apple Festival 300 Lottery tickets as part of the Festival's capital upgrade program.

April 28, 2009 - Festival Queen Pageant Gracefully Bows Out

2007 Queen Pageant

The Morden Corn & Apple Festival Queen Pageant has been permanently cancelled. After years of struggle to get the minimum number of five young women to enter the pageant, the Festival now found itself in a position where no one wanted to step forward to organize the show either.

The struggle to recruit participants has become harder over the years. The deadline for entries has often been extended but this leads to difficulties for other committees that have to plan around pageant activities. It's hard to schedule main stage activities or print brochures or arrange for sponsorships in a timely and cost effective manner if the pageant is in question.

This decision was not easy but we are now in a position to focus volunteer efforts on a festival that is very healthy in every other aspect.

Pageants in general have struggled in recent years to overcome the stereotype of the beauty queen contests of days gone by. In recent years The Corn & Apple Festival emphasized that the qualities we were looking for were confidence, creativity, poise, leadership, and intelligence. The aim was to find good community representatives and role models. We do not believe these qualities have disappeared in Morden and we recognize that the primary factor here is likely the fact that there is tremendous pressure on people's time.

The Festival Committee and Board of Directors recognize that there will be those who are not happy that the pageant is disappearing. We treat our long history and the hard work of those who founded the Festival with great respect. This decision was not made without remembering that.

In closing, the Festival Board of Directors will now begin work to re-design the Festival Parade Float to become a colorful representation of Morden without a contingent of contestants on board. Main stage performances to replace the pageant time slots will be arranged by the Festival Entertainment Committee.