News
Another Fair Week Comes To A Close
By: John Schwartz | Special to the Messenger
Posted on:
For the 163rd year, the Athens County Fair entertained its attendees with a wide variety offerings, including not only the ever-popular demolition derby, but also Tough Track, Motocross, various tractor pulls and numerous other events.
The final day of the fair was Saturday.
The biggest event was far and away the Demolition Derby, as was expected, said Fair Board Treasurer Paula Carpenter.
“Parking was chaotic for a while,” Carpenter said. “We were even parking people down in the manure pits, anywhere we could find. It was a great night.”
The Grandstand was full for several of the week’s main events, including the crowning of the 2014 Athens County Fair Queen Sierra Powell and Fair King Chase Six following the Junior Fair Parade. 4-H groups performed skits and dance numbers and popped streamers to help kick off the fair.
Other areas of the fair enjoyed a healthy amount of exposure as well. Fifty-two 4-H groups participated in the fair this year, bringing in about 700 kids and their various projects. Livestock events went on almost the entirety of the fair, with kids proudly showing their year’s worth of hard work culminating in their brown beef feeder calves, their fancy chickens or pink-spotted swine.
Of course, it isn’t a fair without the main events, and this year did not disappoint. Fairgoers watched as people of all ages, from toddlers to old timers, showed their skills in the arena in toys cars, on ATVs and even modified mowers.
Even though the fair was wrapping up, it didn’t mean that fair board members could take it easy.
“We always have a list of improvements we set,” Carpenter said in an interview Friday. “We meet every morning, we talk through the things that we should do better next year. … We’ll start right after this fair is over when we wind up. It’s a 365-day type thing.”
“People don’t realize that there are 18 board members that basically donate their time all year long,” said main office worker Susie Andrews. “They get nothing out of it other than the satisfaction of watching the kids and the people that enter things.”
As the week drew to a close, 4-H groups were rounding up their livestock and vendors closing down their booths, but in 12 months they will be back for all the festivities the 164th Athens County Fair promises.