It’s Illinois State Fair season here in Springfield. The city is, quite expectedly, abuzz. Ten days of butter cows, greasy foods, farm animals, cooking contests, junk vendors, beer tents and washed-up 80’s rock bands performing at the grandstand.
Do all 50 states have a state fair? I’m having a hard time imagining states that are mostly desert (like Nevada) having a state fair; state fairs are primarily about agricultre. Is there any agriculture in Nevada? Are there state fairs in wee little states like Rhode Island and Delaware?
Also, I note that Arkansas and Oklahoma have the Arkansas - Oklahoma State Fair in Fort Smith, Arkansas (on the OK/AR border). Cite? I’ve been there. Anyway, does each state have their own state fair plus the dual one in Ft. Smith? Or do they share the Ft. Smith one to save money?
For the states that have state fairs, where are they? Illinois’ is in Springfield, the capital. Missouri’s is in Sedalia (the capital of Missouri is Jefferson City).
Finally, I don’t understand a lot of the livestock judging. For example, last Wednesday was the day of the rabbit judging. I’ve seen rabbits before, and they all look about the same. Different colors, body shapes & sizes, yes. But what makes this 13-inch long, 5 pound black rabbit worth $7500 at auction (that’s what the grand champion went for) and that 13-inch long, 5-pound black rabbit destined for the stew pot?
If any of you Dopers are knowledgeable about these things, please help me out.
AFAIK, all states have some form of State Fair. Nevada’s, for example, is held in Reno every year. They tend to be held somewhere near the state capital.
As for the rabbits…well, if you don’t know anything about them, an explaination would be meaningless. Let’s just say that it exemlified the essential qualities of rabbit-hood. Fairs use lots of qualified judges at these competitions, and the judge everything from livestock to homebrew to quilts to “Best Arrangement of Three Twigs and a Cow Pie.”
Oklahome State Fair, Oklahoma City Arkansas State Fair, Little Rock Nevada State Fair, Reno Wyoming State FairDouglas, WY
I personally can testify that the Ohio State Fair is in Columbus; the Tennessee State Fair is in Nashville; the Georgia State Fair is in Atlanta; and the Mississippi State Fair is in Jackson. There seems to be a trend here, so I’ll go out on a limb and say that most state fairs are held in the state capital. I couldn’t find information on state fairs in Rhode Island or Connecticut (but they do mention county fairs) Hawaii doesn’t seem to have a state fair, but Alaska does, but I can’t find out where it is. I suspect it is in Nome, which along with Wyoming would break the state capital rule (you know it is impossible to get to the Alaska capital).
As to your rabbit question, I am guessing that he will be put out to stud. So don’t feel too sorry for him.
An example of a state fair that’s not really close to the state capital is the Maryland State Fair. It’s held in Timonium, which is about 40 miles from the state capital in Annapolis. 40 miles might not sound like much, but Maryland itsn’t that large a state. Furthermore, if it’s necessary to restrict the location of the fair to somewhere in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area, where five-sixths of the state’s population lives, the distance from Timonium to Annapolis is essentially all the way across the most populous area of Maryland.
You’re right…40 miles isn’t much . The State Fair of Texas is in Dallas, which is 196 miles from Austin. But it’s only 635 miles from El Paso. I don’t imagine many folks from El Paso visit the Fair.
The New York State Fair is held in Syracuse, which is centrally located for the more rural upstate area which attends it, and about 200 miles west of Albany, the state capital.
North Carolina’s state fair is held in Raleigh, the state capital – technically on land just outside the city to the west.
Here’s the list to date, with state capital and fair site:
State Capital Fair Site
Alabama Montgomery
Alaska Juneau Palmer +4 others
Arizona Phoenix
Arkansas Little Rock Little Rock
California Sacramento
Colorado Denver
Connecticut Hartford
Delaware Dover Harrington
Florida Tallahassee
Georgia Atlanta Atlanta
Hawaii Honolulu
Idaho Boise
Illinois Springfield Springfield
Indiana Indianapolis
Iowa Des Moines
Kansas Topeka
Kentucky Frankfort
Louisiana Baton Rouge
Maine Augusta
Massachusetts Boston
Maryland Annapolis Timonium
Michigan Lansing
Minnesota St. Paul
Mississippi Jackson Jackson
Missouri Jefferson City Sedalia
Montana Helena
Nebraska Lincoln
Nevada Carson City Reno
New Hampshire Concord
New Jersey Trenton
New Mexico Santa Fe
New York Albany Syracuse
North Carolina Raleigh Raleigh
North Dakota Bismarck
Ohio Columbus Columbus
Oklahoma Oklahoma City Oklahoma City
Oregon Salem
Pennsylvania Harrisburg
Rhode Island Providence
South Carolina Columbia
South Dakota Pierre
Tennessee Nashville Nashville
Texas Austin Dallas
Utah Salt Lake City
Vermont Montpelier
Virginia Richmond
Washington Olympia
West Virginia Charleston
Wisconsin Madison "west of Milwaukee"
Wyoming Cheyenne Douglas
Wonderful! :rolleyes: If anyone wants to save that and edit it with a good text editor so there are decent columns as they add in further data, feel free. That table supposedly lined up using the monospace [ code ] coding.
Apparently the Massachusetts State Fair is synonymous with “The Big E” or The Eastern States Exposition, which I have been to several times now. It is held in West Springfield and has been for years. Like Syracuse in New York, West Springfield is as close as anywhere else to the agricultural center of the state.
They also cannily market the event as a regional thing, thereby getting a lot of visitors from Connecticut, Vermont, New York and elsewhere as well as Mass. itself.
So it appears that the following is a complete list of the state fairs that aren’t in the state capital and the distances (as nearly as I can measure with some crummy maps):
Maryland: In Timonium, which is 40 miles from Annapolis.
Delaware: In Harrington, which is 60 miles from Dover.
Missouri: In Sedalia, which is 80 miles from Jefferson City.
New York: In Syracuse, which is 160 miles from Albany.
Wyoming: In Douglas, which is 200 miles from Cheyenne.
Texas: In Dallas, which is 200 miles from Austin.
Alaska: In Palmer, which is 400 miles from Juneau.
I will give you a very brief explanation of rabbit judging (this applies to some other types of livestock and even cats). Some of this is incomplete or simplistic but you will get the general idea.
Overall health is checked. The animal cannot be injured or have remains of a past injury. The judges go through a whole list of things to judge the health of the animal. These include things like the quality and health of the coat, nose condition, condition of the feet, and eye condition (not cloudy etc.). The animal should not be lethargic or unusually skiddish.
The size and weight of the animal are taken. The animal is judged according to a breed “standard”. The weight should be within a certain range for its standard. The limbs, ears, body etc. are also judged against the standard.
The animal that scores best on these measures and others is the winner.
It can take years of working with a given type of animal to be able to judge them. Judges have to be familiar with all of the different breeds that they judge and be able to score them accurately.
The Big E is the “state” fair for all of New England, but there are smaller, more-local ones like the Topsfield Fair near Boston. None of them AFAIK use government funding.
