OAKWOOD — Fair season is here, and the Vermilion County Fair returns this week with its theme, ‘livestock, lineage and lemon shakeups.’
“Many of us have been on the board for many years, or our families have been kind of grown up here, so we want to celebrate that lineage that we’ve had here at the Vermilion County Fair,” says Paige Brown, Secretary of the Vermilion County Fair Board.
It officially kicks off on Tuesday with open show entries accepted from 4-6 p.m.
“It’s for arts and crafts, and cooking, and sewing, those type of things,” Brown says about the open show entries.
Then, the Vermilion County Fair will feature carnival activities and events, along with vendors, from Wednesday, June 24, to Sunday, June 28.
On Wednesday, the events start with the carnival and food vendors opening for business at 4 p.m., then the Ag Discovery Zone and Commercial Building open at 5 p.m., and it’s a night of pageantry with the Little Miss Pageant starting at 6 p.m., and the Junior Miss and Queen Pageant starting at 7 p.m.
The carnival, Ag Discovery Zone, and the Commercial Building close at 10 p.m. every day of the county fair.
The pageants will take place at the Grandstand.
On Thursday it will be hands-on fun with the open goat show, taking place at 5 p.m. registration at 4. There is also Live Pro Wrestling at 7 at the Grandstand.
“Thursday night we’re having wrestling, we’ve never done that before, so that’s kind of new out here,” Brown said. “There’s all kinds of things that the kids can play with and check out.”
Friday starts off bright and early with the Poultry Show at 8 a.m., and then once again the carnival and other fair favorites start opening at 4 p.m. Then watch the NBHA Barrel Horse Show at 5:30 p.m., the Pee-Wee Swine Show at 6:30 p.m., and finish the night off with the Junk Yard Grand Prix in the Grandstand at 7 p.m.
“We’re doing some fun things this year, like on Saturday, we’re doing the Funnel Cake 5k and there’s no charge to enter it, and you just come out Saturday morning at 8, and register,” Brown said. “You can walk or run or push the stroller, or whatever, and everybody that participates gets a free funnel cake.”
The Funnel Cake 5K is at 8 a.m., followed by plenty of animal farm fun. The Swine Show and the Horse Fun Show take place at 10 a.m., with swine registration from 8-9 a.m. Then, of course, the carnival fun returns from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is also a baby contest at noon, with registration from 10-11:30 a.m., followed by Barnyard Follies at 4 p.m., with registration at 3 p.m.
Brown said about the Pee-Wee Swine show, “we allow kids nine and under, who may have never been able to show a pig before, or anything. We bring pigs in, and they get to show them in the ring, and everybody gets a prize and a T-shirt. So that’s super fun. Nothing cuter than a little kid and a pig.”
And as far as what “Barnyard Follies” are, Brown says its basically a farm-themed relay game where the winning team gets half of the prize money and a charity of their choosing gets the other half.
“They are going to toss a boot, and you get more points if you get it closer to whatever, and you’re going to flip hay bales, and you’re going to do all those kind of fun things, water relay, feed relay, things like that,” Brown says.
The carnival will close from 5-6 p.m. for a break, and reopen from 6-10 p.m. on Saturday. The night will finish out with the Demolition Derby in the Grandstand at 7 p.m.
On Sunday, fairgoers can return for one last lemon shakeup, funnel cake, or whatever your favorite food fair is from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Ag Discovery Zone and the Commercial Building will also be open during those times.
The fairgrounds are located at 1180 East Road in Oakwood. For more information about the fair, head on over to their website. You can also purchase tickets for the various events, like the Live Pro Wrestling, as well as gate entry wristbands on their website, $10 a person.
“There are lots of fairs and there are lots of carnivals and activities for people to visit, but I feel like ours is super affordable, and we’d like people to take advantage of that,” Brown said about the Vermilion County Fair.