The County Fair as Celebration and Cultural Text

The primary focus of the county fair is to, first and foremost, serve as a showcase of the talents of the youth of the community by providing a means of education, exhibit and competition of the various livestock and non-livestock projects the youth are involved in. The Society will also use the county fair to highlight the heritage of the community, and its ties to agriculture, industry, and businesses that are the backbone of the community. (From a mission statement of a county fair in Iowa quoted in an article on the "Economic Impact of County & Regional Fairs on the State of Iowa in 2007" by the Association of Iowa Fairs, p. 1) County fairs are different. Fairs and small-town festivals, rodeos, pageants, and powwows take advantage of long, hot, lazy afternoons, when the crop is in the ground, the sun is in the sky, and there isn't much to do but wait for the harvest. These are outdoor events, and the flat, sharp line of the horizon, at the edge of the earth, is always close at hand. The land, the soil - the rhythms of festival life in the countryside of Middle America are agricultural and its rituals tied to the eternal verities of place. (Pratt and Marling, 1993) A County fair engages all the senses, from the g-forces of the Tilt-A-Whirl to the alluring aroma of frying funnel cakes, with everything in between. (Votel, 2007) But the state fair is deliberately about the crowds and jostle, the noise and overload of sight and event. (Wallace, 1994) The 2009 Brown County (Wisconsin) Fair opened in mid-August with less fanfare than you would expect for a county fair celebrating its 100th anniversary. Perhaps that was because there was some confusion about whether it really was the 100th anniversary- a matter that apparently has not yet been resolved by those who keep the records. On opening day the domestic displays of flowers, vegetables, art work, bakery goods, handicrafts, antiques, including a bowl used for the baptism of an aunt during a blizzard seven decades ago, and even the chickens, cows, and horses were pristine. Beer, fair food, commercial exhibits, carnival booths, and rides, dominated the grounds, outdone in the early evening only by the roar and dust of the demolition derby. It was once again fair time in Brown County, Wisconsin, and once again the agricultural backstory and its insiders struggled for the attention of the fun-seeking outsiders who were there not to learn but to yearn. One horsewoman was ready to explain to anyone interested how her miniature horses could compete in "conformation" with any full-size horse. But not many were listening- the magnetism of the midway was too strong of a pull. What is the cultural context within which the Brown County Fair operates? According to the International Association of Fairs and Expositions (IAFE) in Springfield, Missouri, there are approximately 2,500 county fairs held annually in the United States (Reagin 44). The longevity of the county fair across America is in and of itself a separate chapter. Yet less than three percent of the population is directly engaged in farming (McCarry and Olson 10). County fairs are festivals of the harvest, but on a communal level as contrasted with the much less localized state fairs. They are also dramatic renderings of opposites, held in tension through a structure that seems virtually invisible. Above all, county fairs are for the insiders as well as for the outsiders very sensual experiences, appealing to as many of our five senses as possible, and often simultaneously. We can feel, smell, taste, hear, and see the blending of rural folk culture with the popular culture of the midway and the carnival. It is at these points of tension where the county fair is most fully realized. The "insiders" bring the products of their harvest to be displayed and judged and there is both pride of accomplishment and the thrill of competition. …