Bedford Fair: wet and wonderful
Fair Manager Mallory Gage Guthrie couldn’t believe the crowd’s good humour in spite of sporadic downpours, the odd rumble of thunder, and far from ideal conditions for a county fair this past weekend.
“I was amazed,” she said cheerfully late Sunday as the 194th Bedford Fair came to a close. “The rain held off long enough Friday evening for our demolition derby to be able to come to a crashing finish, pleasing a capacity crowd on the grandstand. The team worked through the rain both Friday and Saturday for the pulling competitions and, unbelievably, crowds kept coming through the gates giving us hope this fair wouldn’t be a complete washout.”
Sunday, now officially Children’s Day instead of Friday, brought over 3,000 youngsters and parents through the gates.
“We even ran out of bracelets,” Gage said, still surprised at the swarms of youngsters hurrying to sign up for the first ever pedal-tractor pull for 3- to 9year-olds. Kids were able to sign up for one of four categories in the pedal-tractor event, and were treated to a free sausage, chips, an apple, and ice cream in the meantime. “All donated,” the fair manager added.
Although final tallies were not complete by early evening Sunday, estimates by organizers hovered between 13,000 and 14,000 visitors.
“The crowds didn’t seem to mind the waterlogged midway where we had to bring in loads of gravel to soak up the water,” Gage said, describing water accumulation in low spots. “But all of us here can only say thank-you to the teams that worked through the bad weather and especially the public who supported us so well in spite of Mother Nature’s best efforts to rain us out.”
The fair was also host to just under 150 head of Holsteins, two beef type herds — Herefords and Angus — over 150 light horses, and, according to poultry expert Richard Grimard, the highest quality of poultry on exhibit he had had the pleasure of judging in several years.
“We had a record number of entries in the Youth Section,” Grimard remarked, “and that’s very encouraging in this department.”
This year’s plan to set up an old-fashioned general store in the commercial building worked well, with horticulture and crafts sharing one side of the space. Here too, the youth section seemed brimming with entries and, according to Ruth Robinson who was in charge of these items, it was the largest youth section in years.
“It’s been a good year and now we can start on the next one,” a smiling Guthrie-gage concluded.