To kick off the 2013 Central Valley fair season, the City of Madera hosted its 77th annual fair at the Madera District Fairgrounds, right off of Highway 99, Sept. 5-8. Although it originally began as just a community event, the fair has grown to host around 53,000 people each year, all of whom can find something to do there due to the wide variety of activities the fair provides including amusement park-style rides, equestrian shows, agricultural and fine arts contests.

According to the fair’s president, Scott Sample, the Madera District Fair began in 1937 as a means of exhibiting the local agricultural production to the public. Since then, though, it has grown to much more than just a display of the harvest, and now includes attractions of all sorts for its attendees, from concerts to competitions to cotton candy.

“Fairs were formed over 100 years ago mainly to promote and showcase agriculture,” Sample said. “However, the annual fair also encourages local competition in growing produce, displaying art and photography, and of course showing livestock animals. The Madera Fair hosts over 200 hundred rentals per year, and they can range in a number of different types and forms, such as wedding receptions, dog shows, motorcycle rallies, concerts, fundraisers, flea markets, and auto racing to name a few.”

Each year, the staff at the fair choose a different theme that reflects essential parts of the community. This year, Sample says the team decided on ?Nuttin but Fun? as the slogan for the event because of the importance of agriculture to the city, from its very beginning.

“The theme we chose was ‘Nuttin but Fun’,” Sample said. “Each year we choose a different agriculture commodity to showcase, and since almonds and pistachios are one of Madera?s strongest commodities, it was actually an easy choice.”

The fair hosts many vendors each year, some of whom have come to the fair for a long time and others who just started working at the fair this year. These workers help to provide both the traditional and new foods that have kept people coming since the time fairs first began.

La Familia Comida Mexicana, a local Mexican fair food business, has come to the Madera fair for years and has been handed down over generations. The business is based out of Taco Rapido, a family-owned restaurant located at First and Tulare in Fresno. Mark Solorio, a member of the Taco Rapido family, says that the family comes out every year not only for the profit but also for the fair fun they can enjoy and help to create for those attending the fair.

“The business used to be my aunt’s, but when my great grandma passed away, she said it was too hard to come so she passed it on to us,” Solorio said. “We’ve been out here for a long time, and we like coming to the fairs. We have a couple of restaurants, but we thought it would be good to do this to make more money, and it’s just fun. We go to the Tulare Fair, the Fresno Fair, and the Madera Fair.”

To keep people entertained between the food and the rides and the art and agriculture displays, the fair brought out performers from all over the country as well as some locals too. In addition to these performances, the Madera Fair hosted a concert each night, featuring Los Lonely Boys, Scotty McCreery, Lifehouse and Larry Hernandez.

Arthur Fratelli, a yo-yo master, magician, and comedian better known as Amazing Arthur, came out to the Madera fair for the first time this year from Omaha, Nebraska. Fratelli has performed at fairs all over the country, including the Kentucky State and the North Carolina State Fairs, and hopes to come back again next year.

“I’ve been doing this since I was a little kid, and I’ve done my show all over the country, at county and state fairs,” Fratelli said. “This is my first year out here, and I overheard them talking about having me back. I’m from 1700 miles away, but they heard about me on the internet and apparently needed their fair patrons amazed.”

Fratelli does love the activities and attractions of the fair, but he says that he most enjoys being able to perform for families and make his audience laugh with his jokes and tricks.

“My favorite part of the fair is definitely having the family audiences when you’ve got little kids and adults and everyone gets it,” Fratelli said. “When I see adults laughing and little kids laughing, that makes it all worthwhile.”

Anita [last name withheld] has lived in Madera for all her life and has attended the fair for about 10 years now. Although the fair remains essentially the same each year, she says she has come back not only for the food but also for the fellowship and fun that community events like this offer.

“I’ve come back each year to bring the kids, and it’s once a year to have corn dogs, food, and funnel cake,” Anita said. “Usually you have to go out of town for that stuff. My favorite parts have been the food and seeing old friends that you haven’t seen for a while. Today we’re going on the rides, and I’m looking forward to that because all the other days we’ve come just to mingle and eat food.”

Every fair in California is mandated by the Department of Food and Agriculture and putting it on each year requires tons of work, but Sample says that all of the planning and effort that go into the fair are worth it to him when he sees the attendees smiling and enjoying themselves, since that is one of the main goals of the fair.

“To see all the family?s come out and have a great time makes all the work worth it,” Sample said. “There?s something for everyone- rides, food, games, entertainment, exhibits. There?s so much to do that eventually it will put a smile on anyone?s face.”

The Madera Fair is only the beginning of the many county fairs the Central Valley has to offer during fair season, with fairs in Tulare, Fresno, Caruthers, and other regions coming up quickly. Although both the Madera District Fair and the Tulare Fair have both ended, fair season in California is not close to over and done.

The Caruthers Fair will be held, Sept. 25-28 where shortly after, the Big Fresno Fair will be held at the Fresno Fairgrounds, Oct. 2-14. The BIg Fresno Fair will feature concerts by artists Boyz II Men, Boz Scaggs, TESLA, Austin Mahone, Sean Kingston & B. Smyth, Ramon Ayala, Neil Sedaka, Skillet, Gabriel Iglesias, Soul Jam featuring The Stylistics, Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes & Main Ingredient with Cuba Gooding, Sr., Korn, Zendaya, LL COOL J feat. DJ Z-Trip and Darius Rucker. Students from Fresno Christian will also be attending the chalk-drawing contest in the fine arts section of the fair on Oct. 9, led by campus Home Economics and Art teacher Sharon Scharf.

For more information on the Madera Distict Fair, see the event’s website.

For more news, see the Sept. 13 article, Meet your 2013-’14 ASB officers.