Do you go to or visit county or state fairs?
Did you ever participate such as show food, crop, or an animal?
We used to attend the Missouri State Fair and we need to get to the one in Kansas but its during September.
Used to a lot.
Sometimes.
I get bored now so I lose interest real quick.
Not at all. When I lived in Ohio, the state fair was a major event. I don’t even know when or where the Illinois state fair is. I can see the appeal to children, but there are plenty of places to get the food items sold there.
I used to take the kids to one, and sometimes two every summer. We loved them!
We go to the L.A. County Fair every year at least once, and sometimes the O.C. County Fair. The State Fair is all the way up in Sacramento, so we’ve never been.
It’s fun. The O.C. Fair in particular tends to have good musical acts, and has more plant-agriculture displays. The L.A. Fair has better animal-agriculture displays and is closer.
We like to oooh and aaah over the various Prize-Winning Stuff, especially the tablescapes. I know people who enter things in the various categories - one friend is an amazing maker-with-clay and enters those pieces individually as well as making her own dishes for the tablescaping competition. Another enters the costumes she makes for Ren Faire in the sewing competition. A third does the cookies and jam competitions.
I also have family up in the Central Valley who enter the Stanislaus County Fair animal showing competitions.
I try to go to the South Dakota State Fair every year but it seems to be getting lamer every year. They finally seem to have settled on 5 days now which is nice. It’s been anywhere from 5 to 9 days in the past.
My family visits the Orange County fair in Middletown, NY pretty much every summer. But I think that this was the last year it was being held, or at least being held there.
I took the kids to a couple of ren-fair when they were little and thought it was all real. Does that count?
There’s a tiny county fair in the county to the south of us, San Benito. The only things I really like at a fair are the animals, the produce and the flowers. If we go early, before the fair really opens, we can walk through and see all these things for free. Because it’s so small, this only takes an hour or so. That’s enough trudging around in sawdust for me these days!
I went to the occasional fair when I was young, when it included horse racing; among other things, it was the only time to see non-thoroughbred racing (“in the day,” quarters and Appaloosas; nowadays, it’s mainly mules and Arabians).
Today, it’s just too expensive to park and enter when you do it alone, considering there just isn’t that much to do. I went a few years ago to see what “fair food” they had, but the selection was underwhelming and the prices overwhelming.
We used to go to the County Fair every year when I was a kid. Nowadays, though, the only time we ever go out to the Fairgrounds is for the Irish festival.
I may go to a local town festival with my younger one for the sake of him going on some rides but we don’t travel to see a county or state fair. I personally might have some mild interest in seeing livestock or eating butter-fried Twizzlers but the rest of my family would get bored by the time our feet left the parking lot (or parking field, more likely).
I’ve started going again as an adult, with an interest in the agriculture/crafts element. As a kid I liked the midway, not so much these days.
I went this year first thing in the morning on a week day. Saw all the animals, farm/garden/craft displays, saw a dog show, ate a little food, and left by 1:30 in the afternoon. Would do again.
I used to frequently attend the LA County Fair as an adult, and occasionally the Orange County Fair, as well. I am a sucker for fair food, but don’t really bother with the rides anymore.
Now that I’m back east, I just had my first experience with the Maryland State Fair. Though much smaller than the LA County Fair, it is remarkably similar.
For those of you who have experienced a variety of state and county fairs, are there things that make certain fairs distinctive? Or are they all pretty much the same?
I’m a balloonist. There’s one combined county Farmer’s Fair / Balloon festival that we go to every year. Other balloon festivals that we go to have food, vendors, music &/or rides but they’re all ancillary to the main attraction - us.
So yes, I do a handful a year, but I’m not paying admission to get in as I’m there ‘participating’ with a balloon.
I love to go. I like the photography, painting, other general artsy stuff like model making, plus the animals and the canned and baked good section. I avoid the midway except to walk through. Never eat fair food - don’t have a craving for deep fried anything on a stick. And my parents trained me not to trust carny folk, and that all the games are rigged. So I never waste my time.
The AZ State Fair lasts the entire month of October. The trouble with that is, the animals rotate, so random chance might have pigeons on display when I go rather than something interesting. Plus, by the end of the month, the decorated cakes and pies start to disintegrate.
Growing up, the county fairs also used to have the latest farm implements on display. I really liked that part - sitting on the tractors and what not. The AZ SF doesn’t have that, and I’m probably too old to sit on them anyway, even if I don’t make tractor noises while I do.
Montgomery County, MD Agricultural Fair, every year. A couple of years my wife and I entered the cheese-carving competition.
Renaissance Faire, nope. Went once. Really didn’t get it.
I usually enter a knitted item in the crafts competition at the Sacramento County Fair. If I have an item entered I attend the fair. I don’t go to the state fair very often even though it is in town because the prices and parking are high and it’s always very hot.
If you ask my kids, I do "unfair"s. 
I like state fairs, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been to one.
Local festivals, more recently, but still a while.
Yes, I enter a quilt or two in two fairs in NH because my boss and her husband are involved in them and “encourage” me to do so. I usually get to one or the other of them but didn’t this year. My MO: get in, look at quilts and crafts, eat a sausage sandwich. Watch horse pulls and wander through the animal stalls. Eat fried dough. Exit.
I feel bad for them – the past couple of years someone has died at his fair, and this year a couple of people were trampled by draft horses at hers.