The Ridge Meadows Home Show is back.
Executive director Graham Vanstone and his team have the show again running at full throttle, with all three rinks at Planet Ice open for business again this year, more than 300 exhibitors, and no restrictions. It is running this weekend, from May 5 to 7, and is taking over the Albion fairgrounds.
The show sells itself as a fantastic value – the cost of the home show is just $8 per family, parking is free, and the family fest is free. Still, with the investment in time, talent, and treasure, put up by so many local businesses and volunteers, we want to use this space to offer a full endorsement of one of the city’s most important events.
Dubbed “The Everything Show,” it offers products and services for renovations, decorating, landscaping – as you would expect from one of the largest home shows in the province. There are also wellness products, gadgets, anti-aging products, and more.
Organizers are saying they have not seen a time in the show’s history when there have been so many new exhibitors to see.
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Family Fest takes over the fairgrounds. See what the award winning Norden the Magician has up his sleeves, or kids can jump into the Monster Foam Party. Shooting Star Amusements brings rides, there are characters from Happyland Amusements, and a lineup of entertainers that include an Elvis impersonator.
If you use food, there is a lot there to try. The sampling area offers tasty teasers from the likes of Checkers Premium Fudge and Haute Foods with their chili oil. Having stoked your appetite, you can try the offerings from some of the 15 food trucks, from Tornado Truck fried potatoes to desert from Cannoli King. There’s enough to justify going back for all three days.
There’s too much to mention in this eclectic mix of activities. Get your fortune told in the Body Mind and Spirit Psychic Fair, watch your kids in the Haney Builders Sandbox, or brush up your short game at the new Bells and Whistles Mini Golf.
Along with events like the Caribbean Festival, Countryfest and the Santa Claus parade, the Home Show provides great local flavour and hometown fun.
This is the 27th year of the annual home show, and on a good weekend it draws more than 20,000 visitors.
The Ridge Meadows Home Show runs Friday from 4-9 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
People who live in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows get to enjoy a lot of fun events just an hour’s drive away, on a regular basis, at neighbouring cities in the Lower Mainland. But this is our turn, and there’s a hometown feel in going to a show in your own city, and running into your neighbours and friends.
The show took a two-year pandemic break, re-established itself last year, and is back to being a hot local happening, on again this weekend.
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