Does your county have a county fair?

When is it?

Do you go? If so, what are some of your favorite traditions?

I'll start: Ours is the Erie County Fair, and it's going on now. It's B-I-G! Plenty of midway rides, farm animals, and food. (Ok, way too much food!)

Favorite traditions: looking through the creative arts building, especially the flower show and exhibition tables, visiting the historical building, eating sugar waffles... and my favorite ride is the beautiful carousel.

We have a state fair here. Lived in NY state and really like the NY state fair, but AZ state fair is nasty (being nice here :)). I always loved the animal barns, horse shows, free music and craft barns. Out here you are lucky if you see 3 roosters, 2 pigs and 4 cows..... The craft barn is a little better, but not by much. Most of the fair is the rides and I just don't do rides unless it is the merry go round :)

Yes, it runs from the 19th-22nd. There's 2 or 3 rides. I love the exhibits and the horsemanship classes. Don't know about the food, I'm too much of a tightwad to spend money on food at the fair. LOL

Yes, it runs from the 19th-22nd. There's 2 or 3 rides. I love the exhibits and the horsemanship classes. Don't know about the food, I'm too much of a tightwad to spend money on food at the fair. LOL
Lots of livestock too.

I have 2 fairs.

1- is Long Island County Fair which is the 1st week in October.Held at the historical site in Bethpage state park grounds. 1700 and 1800 houses that you get to tour. They have minature horses which is cute. 4h programs, late 1880's baseball games. Quilting entries, flower entries which by the way are beautiful. Alot of craft booths too. My favorite one is farming. Everyone enters something from their garden. It's great! Love seeing the largest pumpkin!

2- is Delaware County Fair in upstate Walton New York. That is going on this week. It's really big! They have concerts - Lady adabellum is playing there Saturday night YAY! Horse shows, sheep sheering, chicken and rooster contests, Quilting booths and quilt raffles. And of course the food! My favorite is the Demolition Derby! There's nothing better than a crack up! In the ring of course!

Yes. It finished up on Sunday and ran for the 10 previous days. I didn't get to go this year. I was out of town all last week and worked the week before.
I love to go and look at all the quilts and Cross Stitch and the commercial goods.
I have never entered a quilt into the fair. I have entered my cross Stitch. I have received and Honorable Mention, a 3rd Place and a First Place with nomination to Best of Show.

Our county fair used to be in March, the end of the week before Spring Break. Now they've changed it to be the end of January and it's just too soon after Christmas to get excited about. It was changed to give the kids a chance to show their animals before the big stock shows (Ft Worth, San Antonio, Houston). But it has really hurt the arts and crafts participation by folks outside the schools. I haven't done anything with the fair since my kids got out of school.
The State Fair is the end of September thru part of October, but that is also when I'm involved in two Renaissance Festivals, so have not been in several years.

Erie County Fair. I go several times each year.

This year for the first time I plan to try to find the quilts, but usually I like the rides, italian sausage sandwiches, the horse shows, and most favorite is the Demolition Derby. Tomorrow we will be seeing The Four Tops - some old group from the 60's my parents want to see.

We have county fairs here but I don't go. The pricing is getting OUTRAGEOUS!!!! The "carnies" are getting nastier, and the quality of the fair is really going downhill. My DH used to go try and make us go to the tractor pulls---boring!

We have the Guadalupe County Fair coming up the second week of October. All the standard fair activities, a parade, livestock show, carnival and a rodeo. For many years my MIL volunteered at the "country store" where they sold canned goods, fresh bakery items and crafts.

When I was growing up in Bee County, TX our junior livestock show was also in March, right before spring break. In the early 90's it also changed to January...I don't think it's been the same since.

Ours was he end of July. I usually dont go, too expensive, but the kids sometimes go with frineds. I dont like the rides, or games, but they did have a few good concerts I would have liked to see. AND THE FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have the pima county fair in so az.I have only been once that was 30 years ago,I agree with Raptureready,too expensive and we used to have carnies come in my store(when we were 24hr store and the were a seedy lot at best( I dont like to judge people)but they would scare me when they came in the door

ours is quite small but mighty LOL, our local guild displays quilts and does demos, its a popular sight

We have a huge state fair. There is an historical section, and our quilt guild demonstrates hand quilting on an antique frame in one of the historical buildings. You can check it out here:

http://www.bloomsburgfair.com/

I live in Wisconsin, Ozaukee County, north of Milwaukee. We have one of, if not the last, FREE county fair in Wisconsin. It is held in cedarburg, WI - which is a historical tourist town, though typically tourists don't come for our county fair (not that I am aware of).

We go every year. It is family tradition. My husband's parents just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. They both grew up on farms and had their own farm, so 4H has been a big part of their life and have been to the county fair every year since they were children.

In open class, I have seen some gorgeous quilts!

Yes we have a county fair, and it was a couple of weeks ago. I didn't go this year. Its small and not much there. Usually I would go look at the arts & crafts, and eat! lol Just knew I couldn't walk around in the heat & with this pinched nerve. Maybe next year. Our Ohio State fair is pretty cool tho. I'm not sure when it is.

We have one, but I haven't gone in a while. I might go this year just to see the quilts! :D

The food at our fair is always pretty expensive. I finally found out why, while talking to one of the food vendors. They have to pay about $2000 "rent" for their space, but then the fair takes a 15% commission on all their sales! That would add up pretty quickly. I was wondering how the fair could possibly know how much food was sold... apparently the food vendors have to buy all their packaging materials (cups, plates and the like) from the fair... so the fair knows, if the vendor bought 1000 cups, then they must have sold 1000 drinks... and then they can just "do the math" to get their share of the loot.

Hmmm... no business is quite as attractive or as profitable as it would seem at first glance!

Our county fair is going on right now, however I have not been in many years. Can't do the animals, allergies you know, parking is in a big field which seems like miles from the grounds and its justnot my thing.

delaware has a state fair. i didn't go this year . . . but the exhibits are usually very good. they have a huge midway for the rides, concerts every night (this year they had paula deen). they have cooking contests, horse shows along with showing other farm animals and the exhibit halls are full of projects made by 4-H kids. i used to enter sewing projects when my girls were younger and at home, but have not entered anything of late. it is a nice, clean place to take the family and is always the last week in july.

there is a county fair in maryland going on right now. i quickly checked prices for rides and admission, around $30 bucks per person. for our family of 4, this was kind of steep. on the day that i checked prices, exhibits were closed. did anyone in this group in montgomery county maryland attend?

We have 2 fairs. The county fair is going on now but we don't go to it. The West Alexander Fair starts Labor Day and that's our fair. That's the week the world stops! Nothing else gets done that Monday through Saturday that doesn't tie in to the Fair. We take our embroidery shop and spend the afternoons and evenings doing embroidery for people. Get to see old friends, new babies, and we are located in the building that has the QUILTS exhibit.So we get to look at them all week ! WOOHOO!

We have a couny fair each around the last part of September or the first part of October depending how the two weekends of the fair fall on the calendar. The Big Fresno Fair.

We have it all at our fair since we are in the heartland of the farming community. Everything from baked goods, jams, jellies, farm produce of every type and quilting and crafts up for judging. We also have a horticulture section which includes living plants to flower arranging judging.

Each year the orchid society I belong to has a huge display of all kinds of orchid which are not only judged by the fair but also judged by the American Orchid Society (The parent organization of all local orchid societies in the US)
However, those darn orchids bloom when they want to and not when you want them too. LOL

We have a very small county free fair. Being a very rural county, with total population of around 9,000, we don't have all the bells and whistles. However, we have plenty of 4-H and Open Class (adult) entries. It will be Sept 8-11, and I'll be there every hour it is open as that is part of my job. It's my favorite thing of the year!

We have a fair here in September. I am entering 5 categories with my quilted things. I just love to see how I do. It is fun.

We have lots of county fairs here in Arizona--each county is different on when theirs is. (Maricopa County shares the State Fair grounds and is in March.) The Arizona State Fair is in Oct. It used to be a bit later, but it was the last fair of the season and a lot of the vendors wanted it a bit earlier.

It can be fun to go to any of the fairs, but it isn't as much fun to work for the Fair. <G>

Pati, in Phx

Our county fair is called the Buckwheat Festival and always begins the last Thursday in September and runs through Sunday. There is a fireman's parade on Thursday evening, A school day parade on Friday and the Famrer's Parade on Saturday. There are lots of animals, food and rides but my favorite is the exhibit building where all of the arts and crafts are displayed.

Oh yes, we have a county fair and it is the greatest!!! It has everything from 4-H livestock to top quality entertainment. This year we have the group Lady Antebellum playing a show on Sunday evening. The tickets sold out in 3 days.
There is tons of food and other retailers that come and exhibit.
Many of the store owners here in the county close their business just to go to the fair all week.

It is great----like one big reunion.

chris

We have the Brown County Fair. It's in Aberdeen, SD. It's been on for the last week. Today is the last day. 4-H is big. Cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, rabbits horses etc. There is a home arts building with crafts and sewing, quilting. Lots of activities for just about everyone. We really enjoy it.

I am in Madison County, IN. We have a county fair...always the 3rd week in July. It is a very nice small fair. We have a small midway with lots of eating places, some rides and generally entertainment on stage each evening. We also have our 4H show going on in conjunction with the midway. Our livestock shows are some of the best quality animals in the state. All three of our children were 10 year 4Hers and always did quite well with hogs and sheep and my daughters always exhibited many projects in the exhibit hall. Both of our daughters were also fair queens which is a really big deal.

The IN State Fair just ended it's two weeks today. My family always goes to both our county fair and the state fair many times. My husband and I have both been on our county 4H assoc. and my husband also has helped out at the state fair in both the swine and sheep barns at various times. Summer just wouldn't be summer without our fairs!

At our county fair, we always eat there several times. When our kids were showing livestock at the state fair, we generally packed a cooler and took crock pot meals. Food/drinks at the state fair are very expensive.

Yes, in the shanty town yrly near me and a large one covering 3 counties[states I avoid both ,can't cope with meandering crowds!!