Our Swap Meet from Its Beginnings to the Present Day
Through the years “old” vehicle enthusiasts have been a hardy bunch and have always loved their swap meets. In the early years of the club, the trunks of their cars were filled with treasurers to swap with others at club events such as wiener roasts. They even drove to Crowsnest Lake for Interprovincial Swap Meets where they met with antique car enthusiasts from B.C. and swapped items from suitcases and the trunks of their cars. Often members went home with more than they came with.
Our first swap meet, organized to raise funds for the club, was held in 1976, in a garage belonging to one of the club members. It was a two-day meet plus, prior to the meet there was a work-bee-type day to get the garage ready for the sale. The women made the profit by selling sandwiches and other snacks they had made. Like today, tables were rented out. There was negotiating and swapping going on but often, no money changed hands.
The first swap meet was so successful that some local businesses complained that it infringed on their business. The city responded by a making a rule that every swap meet vendor had to purchase a business license. As a result, the club decided they had to move the event somewhere else. The next year there was an interclub meet, a joint effort between the Alberta Pioneer Auto Club of Calgary and the Southern Alberta Antique and Classic Automobile Club. It was held in Vulcan. Because it was indoors, it could be held regardless of the weather. The name became the Early Bird Swap Meet about that time. The following year it was held in a Quonset in Fort Macleod. In the mean time the club wrote to the City of Lethbridge to let them know how much money vendors and spectators spend when attending a swap meet and also let them know that it wasn’t fair to insist on a business license for such a short-term event. The city rescinded their business-license rule and suggested the club host the swap meet at one of the pavilions at Exhibition Park. The swap meet moved to what was called the 4-H Building, which was just east of the North and South Pavilions. The swap meet did well there for several years.
In those days our club members tended to be younger than most are today and as a result seemed to have more energy. As well as hosting a two-day meet, they also hosted a social event on the Saturday night. On one of their swap-meet posters it had “Swapping” on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. a social starting at 8:30 with “Car Talk by the Gallon”, followed by “swapping” Sunday from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. We have also heard that, for some years the Saturday night social included a dance held upstairs at the “Top of the Grandstand”. (In all fairness, many of our club members do get together for dinner after the swap meet, which now ends at 4:00 p.m. Most are home relaxing by 8:00 though.)
The swap meet continued to grow as more people participated. It was moved to the North Pavilion that had considerably more space. Vendors and buyers continued to increase. Before long both the North and South Pavilions were needed. Then came another change. Club members decided to change it to a one-day meet. Business on Sunday was limited. Most was done on the Saturday.
By 2000, the 4-H Building had been demolished and new pavilions, the Main and the West, had been built. Plus, the Swap Meet had continued to grow, enough to warrant renting the Main Pavilion as well. In 2007, the space in the west pavilion was added to the Early Bird Swap Meet. It was a great location to showcase the vehicles vendors were selling. By that time the transition to trying to broaden the vendor base to accommodate the interests of more people had begun.
Over the years, the enthusiasm for the Swap Meet has stayed the same. In 2020 the club was fortunate to have been able to host the swap meet prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic lock down. By then it had grown to having the four pavilions. That meant the event could accommodate over 200 vendors renting over 430 tables or car stalls. Every building filled to capacity.
In 2021, because of the COVID-19 situation at the time, the swap meet could not be held. In 2022 with the West Pavilion being used for vaccinations by Alberta Health Services, only three pavilions were available for the Swap Meet. Masks had to be worn and some travel restrictions were in place. For visitors to the city, hotels were hard to get because of the number of RCMP staying in town because of the protest at the Coutts border. There was also some concern about attending such a big event. Most club members and many others were just happy it could be held after the one-year hiatus, even though they knew it would be different. It was smaller but was another successful swap meet for the club.
The Early Bird Swap Meet remains a one-day meet but during that day over four thousand people wander around looking for something specific or just browsing. Many are amazed at the size of the event. Some people wear sign boards indicating the specific thing they need for the projects they are working on. Others come with carts or wagons for transporting the treasures they buy. And then there are those who come just to enjoy the event as a whole. For some it is a first-time experience. For others it is an annual event to look forward to.
The 2023 swap meet was the last one in the old pavilions at Exhibition Park. How things will change in the new facility we do not know.