EDITORIAL: Relax and enjoy Park County Fair

Posted 7/23/13

This year’s fair promises to be as good as ever, with a new carnival and many things to see and do. We expect that the new vendor, Carnival Midway Attractions, will be a welcome change from last year’s lackluster assortment of …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

EDITORIAL: Relax and enjoy Park County Fair

Posted

This is the last full week in July, and in Powell, that means one thing: It’s time for the Park County Fair.

People from all around will be in town to take rides at the carnival, see the entries and attend grandstand events.

This year’s fair promises to be as good as ever, with a new carnival and many things to see and do. We expect that the new vendor, Carnival Midway Attractions, will be a welcome change from last year’s lackluster assortment of rides.

Entertainment on the free stage features some familiar faces and some new ones. Grandstand events include old favorites such as pig mud wrestling and the demolition derby, along with more recent additions that are growing in popularity, Park County’s Got Talent and monster trucks.

Wednesday’s concert featuring 38 Special and Charley Jenkins is sure to draw a crowd as well.

Kids Day races will move this year, staging near the horseshoe pits by the south entrance on Sixth Street.

But let’s not forget what the fair really is all about: showcasing the best efforts of Park County residents.

4-H and FFA kids and teens and their animal projects will strut their stuff before judges during the various livestock, pet and poultry shows.

Judges also will make, or already have made, their selections for prizes among fair entries ranging from artwork to photography, clothing to woodwork, and hay to jams and jellies.

Midway activities and fair food complete the family-friendly fun during the annual fair celebration.

We thank Fair Director Jennifer Lohrenz and her staff, as well as the Park County Buildings and Grounds Department, the fair board and many local volunteers, for their hard work in preparing for this week’s fair events. We also commend the Park County Commission for authorizing and funding another round of much-needed electric repairs that was completed at the fairgrounds this year.

We also recognize that work still remains to be done to prepare for future fairs and community events. That includes another phase or two of electrical work, and the eventual construction of a new building to replace the Large Exhibit Hall, which was torn down nearly three years ago because of structural deficiencies.

We encourage the commission to continue to plan for and work to find funding for both essential projects in order to complete them as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, we urge Park County residents to have fun at the fair this week.

Folk singer Peter Mayer put it this way in “Brown County Fair,” a song on his “Earth Town Square” album (with a little liberty taken with the fair’s name):

“There is music on CDs

Magazines of all kinds

And computers and TVs

For amusing the mind.

But in the late days of the summer,

Nothing compares

To just seeing each other

At the (Park) County Fair.”

Comments