Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Vendors and visitors were anxious to return to the New Ulm Trade Fair and Living History event this weekend. This was the 40th Annual New Ulm Trade Fair and a chance for people to return to the historic tradition after a difficult year.

NEW ULM — Visitors to the New Ulm Events Center were able to travel back in time to the frontier period this weekend with the New Ulm Trade Fair and Living History event.

This year’s Trade Fair represented a milestone. It was the 40th Annual New Ulm Trade Fair. The first New Ulm trade fair was held in 1980. This was also the second New Ulm trade fair held with COVID-19 casting a shadow over events.

The 2020 Trade Fair opened on the day Minnesota entered lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic. Several of the regular attendees remembered setting up tables for the fair as Gov. Tim Walz the first Executive Orders restricting activities. One year later, restrictions were still in place but were significantly relaxed. Organizers followed all COVID regulations and maintained a maximum of 250 occupants of the New Ulm Event Center.

Event promoter Michael Emery said there were 65 vendors this year, which was an improvement from last year. The trade fair organizers were proud this tradition could continue in the face of a pandemic. The commemorative badges for this year’s event acknowledged the perseverance of the trade fair with an engraving of a plague mask.

The longevity of the trade fair was clear to the organizers and regular attendees.

“I think it is dedication,” event promoter Michael Emery said. “It is a long-standing tradition.”

The New Ulm Trade Fair is also the first historical show of the year. Several historical rendezvous events happen every year in Minnesota and the Midwest and the New Ulm Trade Fair is usually the first.

Rick Lucas has been attending trade fairs since he attended the New Ulm show as a teenager. He bought a white period-specific shirt and corduroy pants and soon found himself hooked on historical rendezvous.

“We do it all through summer but in the winter we get the inch to come outside,” Lucas said. The New Ulm show is the first chance many have to scratch that itch. It is also the first chance to learn which rendezvous events are happening throughout the year.

This year the anticipation for trade show events was heightened because the pandemic canceled most of the events in 2020. For some, the New Ulm show was the first show they could attend in a year.

John Fritsche, a founder of the New Ulm Trade Fair, said people were anxious to get out to see events this year and he was proud of how the trade fair continued.

“People want to keep the tradition going,” he said. Many of the founders of the show are gone, but their kids and grandkids are keeping the past alive.

Fritsche said the greatest change he had seen in the Trade Show was the variety of items. In the early years, many black powder rifles were sold at the show. That is still true to this day, but the types of items had expanded. Fritsche said there were more fur traders at the show now.

This year’s fair was the first hosted at the New Ulm Event Center. Attendees approved of the change of venue. All vendors and exhibits were available on the same floor for easy navigation.