…if you’re into seeing young men and women slam into each other at medium speed in their 4-door, four-cylinder-engine cars, with the always present potential for a fire or a rollover, these photos will definitely entertain you and result in the release of dopamine pleasures in your brain, for ten, maybe fifteen, whole minutes. You’re very welcome.

I think I’ve written about my first experience with the Demolition Derby at the VKH Fair a few times but, just in case, it was waaaaaay back in the mid-90’s — I took the Journalism program at Algonquin College [link to their newspaper], and photography was an essential part of the program. In first year, we had to put together a photo spread that would cover a single broadsheet page. The second year program, you had to make it so it spread over two full pages. My first year, I hung out at the local fire station for about seven hours over four days. The people were fantastic, and willing to do a lot of crazy stuff. I developed and printed the photos myself, and wrote all of the cutlines as well. I can’t remember the mark, but I did pretty well.

For the second year project, I took photos of the VKH Fair over the summer. I didn’t do nearly as well but, in my defence, I was working with a broken light-meter. I did have some great shots of the Demolition Derby. Back then, the cars were huge, basically they were tanks compared to the cars in today’s Derby’s. In order to get my shots, I simply walked into the ring while the cars were in action, and stood on top of the concrete blocks that were keeping the driver’s from, basically, veering off into the crowds of fans. I lasted roughly 8-10 minutes until one of the volunteer firemen walked, briskly, to where I was taking photos, and told me I was about to probably die… but, I didn’t, so there was some good news.

…the Demo Derby has been a part of the Fair for more than 40-years [more here], and has been the main attraction at the Fair for pretty much that long as well. It is definitely the most attended of all the Events. I think the number of visitors gets up to 6,000 range, and we do get a lot of people from Hawkesbury and the surrounding region coming into town.

So, if you’re looking for the contact high brought on by high-exhaust mayhem in a dirt field, just click on the first photo to get the carousel of pleasure started… comments are always welcome. Thanks for being here.