This thread is making me warm and a bit sad. The Agricultural and Pastoral Association (A&P) Shows were a feature of country life in NZ until fairly recently. The cities used to close for a half day so staff could attend the local show. Cakes, toffee apples, side shows, glorious monster tractors, trucks, arcane rural inventions, and of course the show ring with pipe bands, equestrian displays, dog trials, and the Grand Parade of champion livestock.
The A&P Shows still exist but they are a pale shadow of the grand 3-5 day occasions they used to be.
I went to a fair in Albuquerque when traveling and it was like being back home. Good memories.
Why did they fade away? Isn’t NZ still a pretty rural place?
Your A&P Shows sound exactly like a typical US rural fair. In my county you can count on big strawberry and apple displays (commercial growers), farm equipment, sheep shearing, dog training club parade, horse show, cowhorse contests, amateur art exhibits, logging demonstration (very noisy), pig races, lots of live music, and cinnamon buns bigger than your head. I missed it this year because of travel and it was a loss. I’ve been going to the county fair all my life.
Some US state fairs are renown for their enormity - the Iowa state fair springs to mind. It is 10 days and attracts a million visitors. I’de love to go someday.
Heck even here in Queens, NY we have an small but existent county fair. I’ve been thinking of entering a rug into the crochet section.
Just outside of NYC, The Duchess County Sheep & Wool show draws knitters, crocheters, spinners, and weavers from all over the country, as well as breeders. It is “the” yarn event of the year on the east coast. Their “sheep to shawl” competition is epic (shear, card, spin, dye, knit).
When I was a kid, we raised a few chickens and turkeys. My brother, on a whim, decided to enter the county fair. He took a rooster, put it in a cage and entered it. No prep or anything. It won a blue ribbon. Big laughs all around.
It’s just something some people enjoy doing. It’s a contest most of the time. What are the economics of entering a chili cooking contest?
OTOH, I knew this guy who had a really immense Holstein bull. Just amazing size. Each year he’d take it the county fair just to display it (no contests for older cattle). He made a fair amount of money from stud fees due to the fame of the bull. So the fair was basically advertising.
Some US state fairs are renown for their enormity - the Iowa state fair springs to mind. It is 10 days and attracts a million visitors. I’de love to go someday.
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Erie county New York that encompasses Buffalo, bills itself as the biggest county fair in the country. It has between 900k to 1.1 million visitors a year.
Folks show livestock for the same reason that they show dogs. If your animal wins then the blood lines are proven sound, and you’ll get more money when selling offspring or for stud fees.
