Its Fair Days in Arkansas. Strong indications that summer is over occurs when those yellow school buses start rolling, football two-a-day practices begin, and those Ferris wheels and rides began to be erected at the local fair grounds. Virtually every county seat hosts a fair, a time when people come together to celebrate harvest and demonstrate the best of their crops and livestock.
County and State Fairs in Arkansas include a little of everything. People from throughout the state bring products ranging from live animals, produce, canned goods, and even arts and crafts to be judged and graded by experts. Ribbons and monetary awards are given out to participants and the preparation and showmanship is evident as young 4-H, FHA, and FFA members show off their products. Quilt contests, jars of canned vegetables, photographs and crafts done by adults are demonstrated as a serious business with winners holding bragging rights for the next year.
County Fairs are even more than that, the midway is crowded by tents with hawkers urging passersby to try their luck at shooting balloons, throwing balls into jars, and ringing soda bottles. Odd smells of fried twinkies, sour pickles, hot dogs, and cotton candy assault the senses. Many organizations and clubs including Lions, Kiwanis’s, Jaycees and others raise yearly funds for projects by selling BBQ, hamburgers, and other delights. In Logan County, the Kiwanis’s burgers are so famous that local business sale “Fair Burger” at their businesses throughout the year. Wild music deafens, blasting from every ride and booth down the Midway, accompanied by the screams of those riding the dive bombers, roller coasters, and Ferris wheels.
Local schools used to get out a half-day of schools to experience the joys of rural life. FFA and FHA members from local schools were bussed to the larger state fairs to learn how to judge and evaluate livestock and produce. A member of the dairy judging team, I learned how to disseminate between cattle types and the quality of the milk, cheese, and dairy products they produced.
The larger fairs bring in prime entertainment. The Arkansas/Oklahoma Fair in Fort Smith has talent contests- with a few of the contestant winners going on to professional careers. Most of the state fairs also offer rodeo’s, races, and professional entertainers as inducement for attending. I once met old Festus and Ruth at the Little Rock State Fair and have heard many country singers. State fairs are big business. The Arkansas/Oklahoma Fair attracts more than 150,000 annually and the Arkansas State Fair will have over 400,000 visitors.
The oldest county fair in the state is Washington County Fair in Fayetteville, running since 1857. Bentonville started in 1904, Sebastian County in 1913, and the State Fair in Little Rock in 1938.
Barton Coliseum, for years the biggest entertainment venue in the state, was built on the state fair grounds with the primary goal of promoting agriculture and supporting 4-H, FFA, and other programs of agricultural education.
Even thought these state fairs are big venues and offer much, it is the small-town fairs that are the backbone of promoting and encouraging agricultural and rural life. A great place to gather and visit, it also serves to promote community programs, LoganCounty fair, completed the week of Aug. 18th, raised 48,500 dollars to promote local programs. You’ve never seen excitement like that created as country kids have their products auctioned. Goats, cattle, and pigs are interesting but, at Paris, it’s Jim Rogers, the chicken auctioneer that steals the show. Now 84 years young, Jim has served as poultry auctioneer for more than 68 years and he knows how to sale those chickens. For five nights, locals joined for good country food, fun, and music and now the fun is coming to your home town.
