The first World’s Fair was held in the year 1851 and ever since people have enjoyed attending festive local gatherings. Most fairs are held in the beginning of the fall and attract all kinds of people.
In the local area, three fairs dominate the season. The Big Fresno Fair which attracts the largest amount of people drew a new record of 641,000 people in 2013. That is up 11 percent from 2012. This year the fair will make a 13 day run, Oct. 1-13.
The Madera Fair will kick off the season of festivities running for the course of four days, Sept. 4-7. Over 53,000 people will attend the fair and enjoy various rides, concerts and golden delicacies plucked from deep friers.
The Madera District Fair will feature four concerts this year. Artists include War, Sept. 4, Dwight Yoakam Sept. 5, Foreigner Sept. 6, and Los Tucanes Sept. 7. All shows will begin at 8 p.m.
Along with these concerts, a wide variety of attractions entertain patrons. These attractions include carnival rides, mechanical bull riding, games and many more.
Patrons frolic through the mass of booths, while taking in aromas that range from freshly popped kettle corn to grilled carne asada.
Fair culture is infamous for it wide variety of deep fried culinary creations. These creations range anywhere from deep fried Twinkies and Oreos, all the way to savory footlong corn dogs.
Every year, a plethora of business owners set up their booths at the fair and sell their products to the attendees. These booths bring many different unique cultures together and present themselves to the crowd. Whether you are looking for art, food, toys or unique clothing and accessories, odds are you will find it at the fair.
Many of the attractions are intended for children of all ages. Madera Fair attendee Kristina Espinosa, shared her thoughts on the fair and her freshly painted face.
I’m taking the percussion team and the color guard girls to the Caruthers Fair. We are performing at the Veterans Day Parade, too, so I am not exactly sure what we will be performing at which event yet. Right now we are working on basic marching skills and color guard has been working on the fight song. We have a few different options of what we can do, we will just decide as the fair grows closer. — Lesley Bannister, Band teacher
“I love going to the fair,” Espinosa said. “I went and saw all the animals and my favorite ones were the pigs. I wanted to get my face painted like a pig because they are so cute.”
Besides the Madera Fair, another upcoming critically acclaimed Central Valley event is the Caruthers Fair, Sept. 27. New FC band teacher, Lesley Bannister, will be taking both the percussion team and the color guard team to perform there.
“I’m taking the percussion team and the color guard girls to the Caruthers Fair,” Bannister said. “We are performing at the Veterans Day Parade, too, so I am not exactly sure what we will be performing at which event yet. Right now we are working on basic marching skills and color guard has been working on the fight song. We have a few different options of what we can do, we will just decide as the fair grows closer.”
At this year’s Big Fresno Fair, the campus art department will field 10 drawing/paintings created by students in the annual fine arts competition. Sharon Scharf, head of the art department has helped FC students display their art at the Fresno Fair for many years.
“We might be little bit short on pieces this year,” Scharf said. “Sally Rudolfs, ’18, Cayla Rivas, ’18, Sydney Belmont, ’17 and Michael Fu, ’16, are entered already with drawings and paintings. A few more pieces should be finished soon so hopefully we will fill up all of our spots.”
If anyone one else wishes to submit their artwork, submissions are due by Sep. 6 by mail, or Sep. 8 by internet application.
These writers can be reached via Twitter: @2015Beal and @namoodnhoj.
