Fairs | Pad Patter 8.11

I used to, but I have no desire to be outside, hot, and sticky. I don’t do the rides anymore and the food u fortunately gives me indigestion.

 

When I was growing up, we went to our county fair every summer.
Now that I have kids, we've been to ours a handful of times. We don't go every year, because I feel the same, like it's just the same old thing.

This year we could have gone, but we told the kids, we want them to experience other fun summer stuff in our state. We didn't do a big vacay this year, we went up to Traverse City and stayed at Great Wold Lodge earlier, and in another week or so, we'll be going to Mackinaw Island to see the sites up there. Way better than the fair and we got 2 trips instead of one night on the rides.

 

We used to go to The State Fair every year. It was a big deal when I was growing up. Our Aunt and Uncle and our 3 cousins always went with us and we made a whole day out of it.

We had a "free fair" in our town and we never could figure out why it was called "free" because you dropped a bundle of money there. It was all, rides, fair food and sideshows.

We have a really nice fair here in town every November and it's super fun to go to.

 

We haven't gone for years. Our kids don't seem to care one way or the other. It's far enough away (about an hour) that it's not really a a desired destination for my older boys (15 and almost 13). They'd rather do something in Seattle. Our state fair is after the school year starts and the school district gives out free tickets. I have a lot of good memories from going to fairs as a kids, but I do think times have changed.

 

We grew up going to our local county fair- mostly because we lived in the country & all our friends showed animals in the fair! It was expensive tho- so often times we would have to pay ourselves since my mom didn't have the extra $$. Where I live now, we have a really BIG local fair- since the state fair is in Western WA- I think the one here is called the Spokane Interstate Fair. Who knows what that means! lol! My father-in-law's company (machine shop) does all the work for the broken/fixes the rides- so in addition to getting free ride bracelets, he also knows which rides are safe & all fixed! My kids are still young enough that they like to see all the animals. We usually just do one day & mostly just for the food for us grownups! My food of choice is the hand dipped corndogs. SO good!

 

I'm spoiled, because I grew up going to the best fair, ever - The Ventura County (CA) Fair. Our county used to be the largest agricultural producer per capita, so going to the fair meant lots of animals, amazing food and agricultural displays, tons of food and commercial vendors and plenty of free entertainment. It's right on the coastline so you're feeling the sea breeze while you're there. I used to enter sewing, knitting, and ceramic pieces every year, and I've got my share of ribbons!

I've been to many different state and county fairs since, and the only one that's come close in comparison is the Montgomery County (MD) fair. Last year I was bummed because we went opening day and they had no exhibits open - they had just started judging everything! Talk about a disappointment. It's going on now so I may drive up one day this week for a visit.

I've never been to the Virginia State Fair, but maybe I'll go some year. Our county fair (Fairfax, VA) is a technology fair, so no food, crafting, horticultural or agricultural exhibits. Needless to say I've never been and never plan on going, either. Why bother? I'm not there for games, rides, concerts or contests. Our county 4H fair is pretty good. I love seeing all the thinks the kids make and how they're involved in everything. That's much more worthwhile, imho.

 

Years ago, USA Today had a bucket list of 10 things to do in the US and the Iowa State Fair was ranked number two, ahead of Disney World and the Empire State Building! (There is even a musical about the fair.) It really is a huge fair, always hot, with mobs of people. They get some big ticket bands every year. My husband grew up on a farm so he loved visiting the animal buildings, me, not so much. @IntenseMagic i agree about the sketchy rides! Perfect term. I’ve been to the Washington state fair and it was okay, just not as big a venue as the Iowa State Fair.

 

I grew up going to the county fair and the Ohio State Fair every year. Auglaize County Fair was an every day occurrence for me... it is in the same town. My friends and I that lived in my neighborhood would walk there as a group. It was really awesome in those days but alas it is not quite what it used to be. I can hear the sounds from the loudspeaker from my house. It is only 1 mile as the crow flies. The July 4th festival (put on every year by the St Joseph Catholic Church) is held there as well. I can stand in my front yard and see the fireworks.

The Ohio State Fair had awesome entertainment years ago. My parents and I would go to Columbus (90 minutes away) for a weekend every year. Saw some great musical acts including James Brown, Herman's Hermits and King Family (who remembers them????). And, one year, at the motel we were staying at we saw a car used in one of James Bond movies. Got to sit in it but no picture. I haven't been there for over 20 years. Went down 3 years in a row just to see the Oak Ridge Boys. Back when I was growing up, it was always after our county fair in August. County fair was the 1st week in August. So it was always the fun thing to do before school started right after Labor Day. But, alas, that has also changed. It now starts in July and this year, ended August 4th and is only 2 weeks. It used to be 3. But, the state fair still has an AWESOME BUTTER STATUE each year. This year's was a tribute to the Apollo 11 crew on the 50th anniversary of the moon walk. I found a newspaper clipping from 1969 that said the butter statue that year was also in honor of Apollo 11.

My favorite fair food was always the french fries soaked in vinegar. The really stringy, real potato fries. And, I always had to get a bag of fresh roasted peanuts to take with me when I left. My former co-workers would always send someone to the fair to get the pork sandwiches at least once during fair week. One guy had a weekly pass since his kids were in 4-H so he usually did it and he was in a position where he was out visiting customers during the day anyways.

Fairs were great when I was younger but not something I'm interested in these days.

 

Ah, here in NC our State Fair is not until mid-October, but your post reminds me that I need to go register some entries. The last two years I have entered a Digital scrapbooking page and a set of ATC. The first year I won a First for the page and a Second for the ATC. Got the same for the ATC last year, but only got 4th for the page. I know why - they only really look at the journalling and not the page design at all. I scrapped a page about that and I might just enter it - but probably won't.

We usually go on opening day as they have ride specials but now that the DD is grown up and in college, we will probably skip the rides. They do the judging before the fair opens so everything is usually open that first day. I love seeing all the crafts and the largest veggies and cute animals. I also like looking at the artwork. And the food...

 

And yeah!!! Our State Fair has finally gotten with the times. I can now submit a digital page in any of the topic categories for scrapping. There is no limit either. Woot! Now to decide which pages to enter.

 

I/We will sometimes take the kids during the day when the carnival rides are closed. We'll walk around, eat, people watch and sweat our arses off. Our fair is the beginning of October but we're in California so it's still super hot in October. I've never put my kids on the rides. I mean, they put them up and take them down in a matter of hours. I grew up riding them though. Ha!

Our fair used to have some really good concerts, too. I haven't been to one there in years though. Matt and I saw Kenny Chesney when he was first starting. We had VIP tickets and he even signed my camera. He was signing hats and whatnot and we didn't have anything so I handed him my camera. He was likes really? I don't know what happened to that camera. This year's concerts include Keith Sweat, Paul Anka, Tower of Power, Ice Cube and Willy Nelson. I won't be going to any of those.

 

A short video showing the statues. Lots more on YouTube with interviews about them.

 

I do like to go to our local county fair, but it's so expensive these days! It costs $10-15 per person to get in and then the kids want to do the wrist bands and then of course we have to eat fair food since we are there! We end up spending over $100 for an evening at the fair. Ugh. We just went to Cedar Point on Thursday and Friday and our local fair starts today, so I think we will skip it this year.

 

Ah butter sculptures. We have one at our fair inside an air conditioned enclosure. I need to hunt it down this year.

We used to have better know musicians at the fair, but now they have switched to "homegrown" entertainment, i.e. groups from around the state. So we skip that.

We have watched the clogging competitions because we have friends that dance in it. Some of the side shows of acrobats, juggling, etc. are fun and cool to watch. We also have racing pigs and their friends some ducks. They race for cheese doodles and different parts of the audience cheer for each contestant. They have names like Piggy Gordon and Oinkhardt Jr. Silly but fun.

 

@BevG

Pig races are hilarious. I always enjoyed seeing stuff like that at the state fair. The small entertainment areas were also fun to check out. One of the last times I went there was a whole area dedicated to sand sculptures. I have the pictures scanned and in some of them, they were still doing the sculpting. 1989 was the year.

The county fair is pretty much local, home grown entertainment although none of it is in the grandstand. Big draw is the Gospel Music Tent. Harness racing is a couple nights, demolition derby another night and the last night is a tractor pull. I just found the schedule for this year and they also have a cheerleading competition, a pony pull and bull riding as grandstand entertainment as well. Used to be 5 nights of harness racing... glad to see they have changed it up!