When I was a kid, my family would go to the Routt County fair every year in the middle of August. It was the last hooray before school started, and signified the end of the summer and the coming harvest. Often we would go to help my Uncle Bobby sling burgers and fries in the VFW cook shack, and sometimes we would just go as spectators to watch the rodeo, participate in the greased pig contest, or enter our arts & crafts for judging at the exhibit hall. I loved walking through the small animal barn, looking at the different breeds of bunnies, chickens, and turkeys. We didn't live on a farm, but many of my friends did, and it was cool to see the culmination of an entire year's worth of hard work come to fruition at the livestock sale. Many of my schoolmates paid for college with the money that they made through 4-H and other programs put on by the fair. They even put on a fair dance, so we would all put on our stiff, new school clothes (which it was still too hot for) and go stand in small circles in a fairground corral while a country band from Denver crooned in the background. Believe me; it was more fun than it sounds.
Each year's fair was a little different. One year, the fair board shelled out the money for a Ferris wheel and I remember riding it three times with my dad, each time with him rocking the car at the top until I screamed, delight mixed with terror. Going to the fair remains one of the happiest memories from my childhood.
When I first moved to Greeley, I thought that the Greeley Stampede and the Weld Country Fair were one and the same. You can imagine my disappointment when I realized the cost of the stampede and the fact that so many of my favorite fair elements were missing. Years later I would realize that the Weld County Fair happens every year, after the Stampede, at the end of July.
Now, I realize this might be an unpopular position, but I would argue that the
Weld County Fair is much better than the Greeley Stampede and I will tell you why:
- Admission & parking are totally free.
- You can always find parking on the premises. No need to walk from ten blocks away!
- You can ride in a covered wagon pulled by beautiful horsees from one end of the fair to the other.
- They serve a free pancake breakfast on the first day and a free BBQ lunch on the last day of the fair. Even though they have to serve a TON of people for each meal, they move through everyone very efficiently.
- Each year's events are a little different. Last year they had animatronic dinosaurs. This year they had FREE hot air balloon rides! YOU HEARD ME!
- There is a small parade that goes around the fairgrounds and you can win upwards of $300 for the best entry!
- Though it's not in my pool of interests, they do have a classic Corvette show every year and also have antique tractors and other farm equipment view.
- You can see all types of farm animals and talk to the kids who raise them as part of their 4-H projects. These kids work so hard and I admire them immensely.
- This year they offered a ton of fun activities, like giant hamster balls, a wild west fun park, and a photo booth in an adorable trailer- All free of charge.
This year we had the pleasure of sharing the last day of the fair with my brother, Robby, and his son, Hugo. We ate BBQ and hit all the fair favorites.
If you like or are intrigued by anything you see here and you live in Weld County, I encourage you to hit up the fair next July. If you live in another part of the state or the country and don't know if your area has a country fair, I encourage you to look into it. While I love being able to go to the fair without fighting crowds or waiting in insane lines, I will say, I'd love to see attendance be a little better. This is my community. These are my people. From the moment of my birth and onward, and it's important that I don't forget that.
It's good to see and know where our meat, milk, and textile fibers come from. It's good for kiddos (and adults) to see farm animals and the people who raise them, and not just at petting zoos. Our rural communities and the people who live in them are important and in many places in our country, those communities are struggling and dying. A lot of people have been and still feel invisible.
(For more on this that is much better written, please check out Sarah Smarsh. She's amazing, genuine, and has opened my eyes to many truths about rural communities in this country and my own rural upbringing.)
Now, I'm not saying that attending the fair will solve all these problems because it won't. But it might make everyone, including me and you, feel a little less alone, separate, and different.
It's important to meet, converse, and congregate with people who live, work, believe, and think differently than you do, lovelies. I truly believe that loving, knowing, struggling, and sharing with your community can change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
