It’s county fair season. Last week in Louisa County, that meant rides, food, music, contests, livestock, and tradition. WMRA’s Christine Kueter reports.
There are a few things that nine-year-old Emily Myer wants people to know about pigs.
EMILY MYER: They’re really cool animals, and really fun to show. They can’t sweat, and they're very, very smart. They’re the second smartest animals in the world. You can get them to sit with treats, they’ll also lay down, and . . . It feels like when you’re talking to them they really listen.
Louisa County has held its fair for more than 40 years. That’s given 4-H kids like Emily a place to show the animals they raise, and provided artists, farmers, and cooks a way to share their cultivars, too.
Miss Louisa County Fair, Ellen Rosson, now an Oklahoma State University graduate who was making the rounds in her tiara, is a fair veteran, too.
ELLEN ROSSON: I don’t know, from the food to the people you can’t go wrong! So, I love a funnel cake, that’s my favorite part. And then the ag show is a great opportunity, too, because not everybody can go see a cow or a pig or a sheep, and seeing these young people out here, showing their animals. I did it when I was in high school, and, growing up, from nine to 18 years old, I was out here showing a pig or a cow, so … there’s still rides and games, and everything like you’d see at other fairs, but I think the agricultural component that we have at the Louisa Fair is something that helps us stand out and really can educate the public in that way.
American county fairs originated in early 1800s New England, when, as the Smithsonian Magazine reports, two particularly fine Merino sheep imported from Spain attracted so much attention that their owner,Elkanah Watson, set up an exhibit under an elm tree. Not long after, Watson displayed cloth created from the creatures’ wool, an early example of animals, crafts, and capitalism that’s become a staple of America’s agricultural fairs.
Watson is also credited with creating the fair éclat, a dazzling display, something eight-year-old Peyton Ann Camphuysem did as she paraded Cupcake, her costume-wearing hen, around the park perimeter.
Cupcake earned a blue ribbon for playing the xylophone as one of 16 entrants in the pet contest, which included talent and costume portions.
Here’s Peyton Ann’s mom, Jennifer.
JENNIFER CAMPHUYSEM: When I was her age, I used to bring my dog, Biscuit, whose favorite trick and best trick was “bang, you’re dead.” She would lay over on her back and pretend she was dead. So I told her about that, she’d seen pictures of that dog, and she said, “well, I’d love to do the talent, the pet show.” This was always the very best part of my whole childhood, the thing I looked forward to the most, and I still do as an adult, and so it’s been really, really fun to bring my kids and watch them do all the things that I did and loved so much, and have such good memories of. And doing it with Cupcake the chicken’s been pretty fun!
[Sounds of cloggers dancing to “Dueling Banjos”]
Louisa’s three-day fair wrapped up Saturday with clogging, several performances from the Dock Dogs – a canine aquatics group – a beard and mullet competition, and a livestock auction.
Eleven-year-old Natalie Myer showed a heifer and two hogs this year. She hoped her pigs would fetch a good price, money she’ll save for college.
NATALIE MYER: Last year, I showed Granite and Soot. They were – Granite was a Tamworth, and Soot was a Hampshire. Granite went for $2,600 because I went up around the vendors here, and they were so surprised that I came up and talked to them so they bought my pig . . . I think they're going to go for about $2,000, or at least above $1,000.
If you missed Louisa’s fair, there are plenty more to come later this month and next, including the Clarke County Fair, which begins, Aug. 9, the Rockingham County Fair, which begins Aug. 10, the Page Valley Fair in Luray, on Aug. 23, and the Shenandoah County Fair, which begins Aug. 28.
The Highland County Fair - which will offer free admission to anyone age 75 and up, to mark its 75th birthday, takes place Aug. 29-Sept. 5.
Later this fall, the Virginia State Fair—which is expected to attract a quarter-million visitors—takes place Sept. 25-Oct. 4 at Meadow Event Park in Hanover County.
