Long before Silver City Days, our annual fair was called the Trail International Festival.
In 1974, two friends and I stood atop the roof of the Crown Point Hotel to get these photos of the midway located on Bay Avenue.
In those days, it really was an international festival, bringing exhibitors and visitors from Washington and Oregon states as well as from throughout the Kootenays.
The festival included cultural and historical exhibits. British Columbia Archives lists photographs from the festival in 1963. But for younger festival-goers, the midway was the main attraction.
My friends and I were members of the festival committee from 1972 to 1974. That’s how we managed to get permission to be on the roof of the Crown Point Hotel.
This roll of Kodacolor II film negatives has been filed away for more than four decades. I love the midway photos we took that evening of June 8, 1974. The fireworks, not so much.
