County Fair shoots out of gate

Fan-favorite events return, fireworks moved to the fifth

Commanding all the splash and dazzle an event of its kind can muster, the Grundy County Agricultural District Fair opens for its 105th season this evening.

“It’s a good fair,” noted Burdette Carter, long-time superintendent of the four-day extravaganza and himself a county fair-goer and exhibitor since he was a youngster.

Some entries are running in number about equal to last year, some are down, and others - hogs for example - are well up from the 2008 competition.

“Ours was the third largest hog show in the state of Illinois last year, and this year our entries are even higher,” he noted. “However, this also is the top-paying hog show in the state. The word is out there - we’ve got a whale of a hog show. It’s a tough show and a good show, and we’re fortunate in that we’ve got good exhibitors.”

The number of saddle horses is up, while the large animal count is down in dairy cattle compared to previous years.

“If we had to count the amount of livestock from Grundy County, we wouldn’t have much of a livestock show,” said Carter, ticking off the number of producing dairy farms in the county on two fingers.

“Yet we have a large dairy show, even though the number of entries is down.”

The major reason livestock entries are lower is the cost of transporting them to the fair, especially for those  at a distance from Grundy County and out-of-state exhibitors.

“Hauling livestock is expensive,” said Carter. “Some exhibitors who used to travel here in semi-trailer trucks are here today with two fifth wheel trailer on pickup trucks. It’s cheaper to rent two pickups and fifth wheels than haul by semi-trailer truck.”

The price of fuel also figures into the equation, as does the state of the economy in Illinois.

All premium money paid out by the Grundy County Fair to exhibitors is from the state’s paramutual betting. No tax money is involved here, as it is in some other county fairs.

“But, the state has been cutting our money - cutting it for the last 5 to 6 years,” said Carter. “It’s really hurt the smaller fairs. Their days are numbered.”

County fairs are a time-honored institution all across Illinois. At one time, they were the highlight of entertainment in agriculture areas.

Vintage photos of county fairs depict fair-goers dressed in their finest clothes.

“It was a competitive thing. It was  ‘I’ve got the best bull or horse or whatever, and my neighbor says the same thing, so we’ll take them to the fair and find out whose got the best,’” said Carter.

“It was the same with pies, or quilts, or whatever. I hate to see that all go away.”

Carter does believe the Grundy County Fair is around to stay, especially in that the Grundy County Speedway is located on the grounds.

“Our speedway helps us,” he noted. “But, you don’t know. You just can’t predict. And, that hurts me. I grew up around fairs.”

Boone County has the largest county fair in Illinois, and will survive. So will the DeKalb County Fair at Sandwich, which by some counts, is the oldest continuous county fair in Illinois.

“And, we’re going to survive,” Carter said. “It’s small county fair like that in Franklin County that are really hurting.”