Fairy Berry Fest opens this weekend

Lewis Carroll had a pretty vivid imagination when he penned a story about a young girl named Alice getting lost in the fantasy world of Wonderland, but he could never have imagined his famous tale would get so corny, especially in Bon Accord.

One of Sturgeon County’s premier agricultural and tourist destinations has made getting lost like Alice into a real adventure.

Prairie Gardens & Greenhouses is opening its popular annual Fairy Berry Festival this weekend and the star attraction at its Adventure Farm is its famous corn maze. This year the theme is Alice in Cornland and there is nothing like standing in the middle of a field of stalks taller than your shoulders. There is no magic cake with the words ‘Eat Me’ on it to make you taller and give you a better vantage point.

Opening on Saturday, the maze is billed as the world’s largest interactive puzzle as it covers a seven-acre area and five kilometres of pathways. Tam Andersen, the director of fun at the outdoor theme park, explained it just made sense to base the theme for the maze on the popular nonsensical children’s story. She said it was about more than just its resurgence because of the hit Johnny Depp movie.

“That whole idea of disappearing down the rabbit hole … it really appeals to my sense of playfulness,” she laughed.

She said the maze is actually an interactive game with some surprises hidden inside including 12 keys, each one containing a letter of a puzzle word for an added level of fun and mystery. Some key characters appear as well, like the White Rabbit, the disappearing Cheshire Cat, Caterpillar and even Alice herself as she gets taller like the corn itself. She said the stalks can grow 30 cm (1 foot) each day under the right conditions.

“It’s going to be such huge fun.”

If the big maze is too daunting a task then consider that it comes with several ‘chicken out’ exits. Of course, there’s also the children’s maze too that should take about 10 minutes to navigate, although ‘should’ is the operative word.

“It’s a logic maze on a grid and it’s tall enough to get lost in,” she said.

But the mazes are just one aspect of the larger Fairy Berry Festival. It always starts on the August long weekend and this year it will also see the launch of a brand new attraction called the Lost Lemon Gem Mine. Based on a real Alberta legend, it will give visitors the opportunity to sift through the muck for real gems, fossils and artifacts like arrowheads from around the world.

“It’s got a huge 40-foot long sluice on it. You’ll actually be able to sieve out real gems including real emeralds, amethyst clusters, and all sorts of amazing, beautiful things. Peacock rock seems to be pretty popular. Crackle quartz … all kinds of neat stuff.”

Speaking of peacocks, for the first time in several years the petting farm has a proud mama peahen and papa peacock with their set of six peacock chicks. There’s Basil the chatty parrot too. The main fixtures of the park will be offered including the wagon rides, mini-mazes, face painting and a full day of other family games and activities. You can pick peas and strawberries but Andersen suggests coming early for the best of those crops. Since it’s called the Fairy Berry Festival, there will be some fairy-related fun like making wings and tying ribbons in your hair as well. Andersen had an added incentive for visitors on this upcoming grand opening weekend.

“We want people to get into the spirit and find their inner children. The little guys who come dressed as fairies or pirates get in for free this weekend. It’s a nice opportunity to head on out of the city and explore the wonder of the countryside without breaking the bank. It’s really such a great family event. This is just a gentler, quieter kind of escape [than Capital Ex or Heritage Festival]. I think that families with little kids really enjoy something that’s meant for them.”