Auction preview day, free community dinner to draw thousands to Chilliwack next week

CHILLIWACK – Thousands of people are expected to attend next week’s farm auction festivities at Heritage Park in Chilliwack featuring preview auction activities in person, and a free community dinner to anyone that would like to attend.

The Beekman Auctions Fall sale gets underway Wednesday, October 21 during the auction preview day at Heritage Park, where people are encouraged to come out, take a look at the extensive inventory, and then gather for a free dinner starting at 5 p.m.

The online auction will feature hundreds of tractors, skid steers, implements and just about everything else a farmer might need.

One of the items for sale in next week’s online auction from Beekman Auctions. (Image Credit: Beekman Auctions.)

The company says it prides itself on being a farmer-run auction for farmers – whether it’s dairy, berry, hay or hog farmers.

Beekman Auctions estimates that they typically see between 1,000 and 1,500 people come out to this free community dinner, which will also feature vendors, bouncy castles and a mechanical bull.

Free community dinner. (Image Credit: Beekman Auctions.)

“It is one of the few remaining community events that brings farmers out of their fields and into some fun and community,” Steve Johnson told Fraser Valley Today. “We started doing the preview day and free dinner the night before, so as to still have the feel or fun of a live auction event, but this is more family friendly. On auction day we typically see a couple thousand people actively bidding on the site, and usually 300-500 winning bidders come and collect their items. We employ 40 people during the week. We are Heritage Park’s largest agricultural customer, using the facility about 20 days in a year.”

Equipment viewing during preview auction day starts at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21 and will typically last for most of the day.

One of the items for sale, a John Deere 7430, with a current bid of $7,750 (as of Friday, Oct. 16). (Image Credit: Beekman Auctions.)

Heritage Park encourages all prospective auction buyers to view equipment in person that day.

The online auction happens Thursday, Oct. 22. All items will be sold unreserved online. Bids start closing at 9 a.m. and typically go until about 5 p.m.