A changing county calls for a reinvented fair

A rural, agrarian-based cultural affair located in a community that’s becoming ever more urban and urbane must work hard to stay relevant.

The Albemarle County Fair, slated to run Tuesday through Sunday, seems like a hoary anachronism in the face of ever-developing commercial strips and burgeoning suburban expansion, but fair officials beg to differ.

“Albemarle County is still agricultural; it’s just not traditional agriculture where entire families work the farm,” says Rob Harrison, board president, standing on the fairgrounds. Behind him large, white tents await displays and Sentry Electric Co. workers scurry to hang wires to get power to the site.

“There are larger agricultural businesses and a lot of individual farms, but in most cases the farmer is working the farm on weekends and evenings after working a full-time job,” Mr. Harrison says. “That’s what I do.”

Still relevant

Fair officials are well aware of that dichotomy. The agricultural acreage that the fair board leases at Plank Road and U.S. 29 in North Garden is part of Bundoran Farm, a recent residential development that preserves a working farm while building houses around it.

“The fair is still relevant on many levels,” said Michael Anello, the fair board’s treasurer. “The problem is that the needs and interests of the different agricultural communities are not always the same.”

This year the fair offers contests to amuse city dwellers and country cousins alike, from hot dog-eating competitions to husband-calling contests. There will be domestic skills and craft demonstrations. They will be mixed with seminars that reflect changing trends in the county, including tips on training horses and a llama and alpaca competition sanctioned by the Alpaca-Llama Show Association. Competitions among the growing ranks of county viticulturists and home beer brewers are also on tap.

Planning ahead

Meanwhile, the fair is looking to the future.

“We’ve made an effort to reach out to local 4-H groups,” Mr. Harrison says. “They have great programs and grow a little larger every year and are really reaching out into the community to get others interested.”

The 4-H influence will likely continue to grow as gas prices send up food prices and people turn to gardens and small plot farming. Advice for both can be found at the fair.

“The days when the fair was the place to go and show off your products may be gone, but it’s still an important event in the community,” Mr. Harrison says. “It still plays a role.”

| 978-7271