Taber CornFest Parade. (Supplied by Taber Chamber of Commerce)

By David Opinko

Taber Cornfest still a go, despite hail storms impacting crops

Aug 13, 2019 | 6:00 AM

TABER, AB – The Taber Chamber of Commerce has received quite a few calls in recent days asking if the town’s major annual festival will still be happening.

On Tuesday, August 6th, a hail storm destroyed significant amounts of corn and other crops in the Barnwell and Taber areas.

Johnson Fresh Farms told Lethbridge News Now that about 90% of their corn was no longer sellable, while Molnar’s Taber Corn lost 480,000-600,000 cobs of corn and around 1-million pounds of pumpkins.

Taber Cornfest Chair Jared Bell says, despite this, the event will go on as planned.

“We do have a couple of options on getting some corn for the various events for Corn Fest this year. Obviously, our hearts go out to the guys who got hit by that storm because it was pretty devastating, but there is a few other guys around town that think they have some corn that’ll be ready for us to use, and we’ll be showcasing that.”

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In a Facebook post by the Taber Chamber, the group wrote that the impacts of the storm will only “minimally” effect their plans for the festival.

Bell hopes the 44th iteration will help to rally the community behind the local corn growers.

“I think that kind of showing the support out there is going to be important because, obviously, this effects people quite a bit, especially the guys who were growing the corn because they got slammed in that storm, so getting some people out there and showing that we’re still all kind of rallying around them is going to be huge for them.”

The Chamber has been looking into ways it can help the corn growers who were deeply impacted by the storm.

Taber Cornfest kicks off on Thursday, August 22nd with the Cornfest Parade at 4:00 pm. It will be followed by two days of family fun festivities, including a classic car show and fairground activities.