PEI

Circus acts, farm animals, harness racing: It's Old Home Week in Charlottetown

The grounds of Old Home Week opened at 9 a.m. Thursday, with tens of thousands of people expected to attend.

Old Home Week had 80,000 visitors last year

Livestock competitions are a mainstay of Old Home Week. (Old Home Week/Facebook)

The grounds of Old Home Week opened at 9 a.m. Thursday, with tens of thousands of people expected to attend.

The fair, celebrating its 130th year, will have all the regular popular attractions — the midway, the farm animals, horse shows — and event manager Sandra Hodder-Acorn has lined up new events as well.

Those include Indigo Circus.

"They do balancing acts, hooping, fire acts, sword swallowing. They're on stage twice a day," said Hodder-Acorn.

Indigo Circus will be on stage twice a day. (Indigo Circus)

"Next Tuesday and Wednesday they're putting on an act in our arena which is going to be phenomenal. They're doing an aerial show with hoops and silks."

Bill Oakley will be back with his dominoes show. Oakley drew large crowds toppling 5,000 dominoes last year. This year he's bringing 20,000, with an expected topple time of 10 minutes.

Old Home Week attracted 80,000 visitors last year. Hodder-Acorn said it is difficult to say how many will attend this year, because it is highly dependent on the weather.

Launch day is expected to be showery, but the weather is expected to clear for the weekend.

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With files from Island Morning