Lonato Fair Opens with Rural Traditions and Enogastronomic Exhibits
Punctually at 10:00 AM this morning, Saturday, January 13, Viviana Beccalossi, the Regional Councillor for Agriculture and Vice President of Lombardy, and Giampaolo Mantelli, the Agriculture Councillor of the Province of Brescia, inaugurated the 43rd edition of the Fiera di Lonato.
The event was also attended by the “envoy” of Minister of Resources for Agriculture and Forests Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Dr. Antonio Vizzaccaro, along with the two Lonato locals who, without any fault of their own, had the honor of being born 43 years ago, close to January 17, in the year of the first official fair: Rosangela Cominelli and Oscar Mascarello.
The Characteristics of the Edition
This edition has been described as a “relaunch” edition, or the start of a new era, currently underway in Lonato. It is the first Fair of the Year held throughout the Brescia province, with all exhibition spaces arranged by the Committee fully occupied.
The same mayor of Lonato, Morando Perini, who was present along with his assessors and who also serves as the President of the Organizing Committee, expressed considerable satisfaction. Not so much for the success, which will be fully measurable only tomorrow, Sunday, January 14, at the closing of the event, but primarily because this edition of the Fair truly reconnects with the past by returning to a fair dedicated to Santa Antonio Abate, the patron saint of animals and agricultural equipment.
But that’s not all. In Piazza Savoldo and along much of Corso Garibaldi, where about fifty years ago the first exhibitions with farmyard animals and barn animals took place in Lonato, there has been a return of agricultural carts loaded with equipment from the past, depicting rural life of yesteryear, along with animals from meadows and stables.
Thus, piglets, turkeys, geese, calves, ponies, hens, and others have returned to what were once their spaces, and they are the true protagonists of the exhibition.
Great appreciation was shown by the Assessors and the representative of the Minister for the presence of numerous 28 Consortia of enogastronomic products, relating not only to the provincial and Lombard territory but also to many Italian regions.
Breccia meat producers also wanted to participate to dispel the longstanding fears among Italians regarding Mad Cow Disease. They offered free tastings of meats produced in the lands of our Brescia province.
It was repeatedly affirmed that none of the meats produced, not only in the Province of Brescia but also in Lombardy, poses a risk of infection by Mad Cow Disease. The Brescia Zooprophylactic Institute monitors, and has been doing so for some time, all meats produced not only in Lombardy but also in Emilia-Romagna.
It was also emphasized that the Institute is considered the best in its sector, not only in Italy and Europe but also worldwide.