International Plowing Match this week, free shuttles

Salvation Army – Morning Coffee

Weather forecast for Monday, September 17, 2018

Today – Increasing cloudiness early this morning. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 27. Humidex 34. UV index 6 or high.

Tonight – Clearing this evening. Fog patches developing near midnight. Low 18.

IPM 2018 is getting ready

(International Plowing Match 2018)

Aside from some last-minute touch-ups, the 2018 International Plowing Match & Rural Expo, Chatham-Kent (IPM 2018) site is almost ready to open its gates this coming Tuesday, September 18, at 8:30 a.m.!

The Ontario Plowmen’s Association, about 50 IPM 2018 community committees, and 1,000 volunteers are preparing to welcome more than 80,000 visitors from throughout Ontario and beyond between Tuesday, September 18 and Saturday, September 22. Daily Event Hours run from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and daily admission costs $20 per Adult (age 16+); $5 per Child (ages 6-15); and Children age 5 and younger are admitted for FREE.

The site is just to the northeast of the Village of Pain Court, in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent. Just follow the roadside signs:

IPM 2018 grounds, Tented City, 7579 Pain Court Line,

Pain Court, Chatham-Kent, Ontario N0P 1Z0

(Tented City: Latitude 42.410285, Longitude -82.280135)

The 2018 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo, Chatham-Kent, will kick off Tuesday morning with a parade on site starting at 10:30 a.m., immediately followed by an Opening Ceremony featuring leaders from all levels of government, IPM 2018 leaders, music and Tobe Cobe Jr, the Official Mascot of IPM. The IPM’s five-day schedule of events and attractions will showcase Chatham-Kent’s important agriculture, business and tourism activities. It will feature plowing competitions, awards, demonstrations, antique farm equipment displays, hundreds of exhibitors of all kinds, and many food vendors.

Popular attractions will include rodeo, Team Farmall Dancing Tractors, the Canadian Cowgirls Precision Drill Team and a lineup of music acts such as the Canadian Celtic rock favourites MUDMEN. Guinness World Record attempts will include the Largest Egg and Spoon Race, the Largest Caesar Cocktail, Most People Bobbing for Apples at One Time, and World’s Tallest Sugar Cube Structure.

All the information, schedules and a site map are in the Official IPM 2018 Show Guide, available on the IPM 2018 website at www.plowingmatch.org/ipm2018 and in print at IPM 2018 itself. For ongoing news, updates and photos of events as they occur, visit the website and www.facebook.com/IPM2018.

To host IPM 2018, the Ontario Plowmen’s Association has formed a partnership with the Municipality of Chatham-Kent. Presenting Partners are BMO Bank of Montreal, Hydro One and Ontario Mutual Insurance Association. In addition, the local IPM 2018 Executive Committee has recruited local sponsors.

“Many local and regional sponsors and exhibitors, and more than a thousand volunteers have enthusiastically come together to put on IPM 2018,” says IPM 2018 Co-chair Darrin Canniff.

“We believe in our communities and our land,” adds Co-chair Leon Leclair, “and, for five days, we are inviting everyone to celebrate this way of life!

Free shuttle to the International Plowing Match

Citilinx will operate a free shuttle from the Walmart Parking lot on St. Clair Street to the International Plowing Match from Tuesday, September 18 through Saturday, September 22.

The Citilinx shuttle will take patrons to the International Plowing Match & Rural Expo general parking location where they will hop aboard a wagon along with other match goers and be transported to the gate entrance.

The shuttle will operate from 8 a.m. to five p.m. daily.

Special thanks to the anonymous donor who is providing funding to make the shuttle free as well as Walmart, which is allowing the service to operate from their location.

Riders will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis.

For questions, call 519-360-1998.

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