While attendance numbers aren’t in yet, Turner said there definitely were bigger crowds at this year’s county fair, which was evident by the crowd at Friday night’s demolition derby. Thousands of people filled the grandstands for the derby, which resulted in the need for overflow parking across the street from the fairgrounds.
“I think the weather played a very big part in that,” Turner said. “We had cool temperatures and a Friday night, and everybody came to the fair. It was quite the crowd.”
Not one day stood out over another, Turner said, adding “we had good days all the way through. It was a good fair, real good fair.”
Noelle Lakes, of Liberty, Ind., used to show just about everything — from rabbits to sheep and horses, as well as special interest categories like woodworking and welding — at the Butler County Fair as a child living in Hanover Twp.
“It’s cool to come back as an adult to see the kids enjoy what we enjoyed, which is you work hard all summer to present your project and hopefully get a ribbon,” she said. “It teaches you a lot of self-esteem, confidence and responsibility.”
Elizabeth Hoelle, 16, of Hamilton, “loves” the fair, though she doesn’t show unlike her cousins who show horses. And being with her family was probably her favorite part of the fair, next to the horses.
“My cousin Courtney had three first place ribbons … and my cousin Victoria did really good after getting sick,” she said.
Courtney Saylor, 12, of Oxford, of the Bits N Spurs club worked with Bam Bam, a miniature horse. The fair is more than just being around animals and winning three blue ribbons. It’s also about having fun, like riding rides and eating fair food, especially sugar waffles, she said.
While her fair career isn’t nearly over — this is her second year showing — she hopes to pass on her love of the fair to future generations.
“If I ever have kids I can tell them about it and maybe they’ll want to do fair like I did,” she said.
This fair was the fifth for Robin Geier, and her daughter Megan, who said it’s always “a fun week.”
“You get closer and closer to the same people that come to the fair, and it’s just fun,” Robin Geier said. “A little hard work, but it teachers the kids a little more independence, they’ve got to do a lot of things by them.”
This was the first year for 17-year-old Butler Tech student Jacqueline Garrison, of Hamilton, competing in some of the horse classes, winning a blue ribbon in the reining class.
“My favorite thing was just in general how nice people were this year,” said Garrison, who is a student in Butler Tech’s equine program. “It gave me the opportunity to open up.”
One thing added this year were the sponsor banners surrounding the fairgrounds, which Turner said was a new source of revenue for the fair.
“We had huge support with that, and we’ve got about another 30 businesses that approached us throughout the week and said they want to buy banners next year,” he said.
Nothing new is planned for next year’s fair, but Turner hinted that one or more events could be added.
“We’ve got a lot of new ideas, a lot of things people want to try.”
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