Riding the BeastCounty Fair offers visitors a chance to climb inside a monsterThursday, Aug. 31, 2006
The Prince George’s County Fair is scheduled to run between Sept. 7-10. ‘‘We asked about having a monster truck squash some car, but they wanted $5,000 for that, and we didn’t have the money,” said Paul Harris, president of the County Fair Board for the past 10 years and a Brandywine resident. ‘‘We asked them what could they do, and they offered to let people ride in the truck for $6.” The monster truck rides are just one of the many attractions planned for the fair, now 164 years old and still the oldest county fair in Maryland. Organizers are hoping to attract between 45,000 to 50,000 people to the weekend fun. Other attractions include a black bear act, the traditional beautiful baby contest, a miniature NASCAR track; pig and duck races as well as local entertainers. ‘‘This is still something the public wants,” Harris said. ‘‘We have all different kinds of entertainment, and it’s only $5. You can’t go to the movies on $5.” But Harris sees a day when they can make the County Fair even better, but he hasn’t quite figured out how to make that happen just yet. ‘‘I’ve been trying to get our own fairgrounds,” Harris said. Currently the County Fair Board rents space from the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. ‘‘Most of the other county fairs around the state have their own fairgrounds. ‘‘It allows them to stage other events or rent space out during the year and that supplements their fair budget, meaning a bigger and better fair. It we had our own fairgrounds, it would mean we wouldn’t have to tear this down every year and then rebuild it the following year.”
Local talent Because of that limited budget, local stars highlight most of the scheduled entertainment for the County Fair, Harris said. The acts range from jazz performers to gospel to pop to country. So everyone should find something to their liking, he said. Singer Roxanne Richards from St. Mary’s County is scheduled to perform her mix of pop, rock and country. Ronnie Wayne & Tidewater are the country music group; there are three different gospel bands scheduled for Sept. 10 (Undignified, Nation of Judah and Ndelible). The other bands scheduled to perform are warren Otis Fisher Sextet; E.U. and Sugar Bear. In addition, there are martial arts exhibitions; a boxing invitational, and magic and balloon shows. Arts & crafts There’s something new in the arts & crafts portion of the County Fair. It’s a contest to dress up a stuffed bear in the best red hatter gear. The Red Hat Society social clubs that are popular in this area inspired the contest. Those are clubs where groups of usually elderly women dress up once a month (or more often) in purple dresses and red hats and meet for tea. ‘‘We think it’s a fun idea and people will really get into it, that is if they know about it,” said Laura Tanner, who is chairperson for home arts⁄fine crafts for the fair. ‘‘The other new thing we have this year is a special award for basket weaving in the name of a gentleman who ran a basket group for many years, the Dick Smith Award. He died a couple of years ago. ‘‘Any basket using natural materials is eligible.” Tanner said she expects 300 to 400 entries in the different categories, anything from spinning your own yarn to photography. Fair’s roots Of course the County Fair began as a way of local farmers showing off their goods, both animal and vegetable. Doris Harris, Paul’s wife, is in charge of the agricultural⁄horticultural (which is often called Ag⁄Hort) displays and contests. ‘‘Doris Case is helping me out, so between the two Dorises, we’re taking care of ag⁄hort,” Doris Harris said. She said that while Prince George’s County has changed from a farming county to a suburban one in the fair’s 164 years, they still get a strong showing of agricultural goods. ‘‘We don’t have tobacco anymore, unfortunately,” she said. ‘‘But, anyone who grows something in their garden can enter it at the fair. It’s not just for farmers. And there are a lot of people who have gardens.” Reaching out One of the challenges of staging the fair is remaining true to its roots while also updating it and making it appealing to current Prince George’s County residents, Tanner said. ‘‘We have to get to people who don’t even know what a county fair is, because they’ve never been involved in one,” Tanner said. ‘‘We’ve been trying to reach out to Hispanics and even more into the black community, trying to get them to enter the different contests.” Tanner said she’s noticed an improvement because of that outreach. ‘‘It used to be the same people entering things every year, but now we’re getting a little more diversity in the people who are entering things.”
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