Florida Fair News - Hillsborough County Fair 2018
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY FAIR -
GOOD TIMES AND
COUNTRY RHYMES By Suzanne Holcomb
The 2018 Hillsborough County Fair was held October 18-21 and 25-28 at the Hillsborough County Fairground in Dover, FL. The fair ran a total of 8
days, for Thursday-Sunday for 2 weeks. Pre-fair events included the 2018 Harvest Queen Scholarship Pageant in September where a Senior and Junior Harvest Queen was crowned in attendance of over 300 guests. Opening day of the fair, we held the annual Harvest Awards Luncheon
where the fair recognized outstanding agricultural leaders, including a 2018 Farm Family, 2018 Lifetime Achievement, 2018 Women in Agriculture, 2018 Young Farmer, 2018 Public and Community Service Award. Gates opened each Thursday at 5 PM with our Dollar Days Promotion with $ 1 admission and $1 rides. Fair guests could enjoy free enter- tainment at the fair, including Robinson’s Racing Pigs, The Fire- fighter Show and new this year, the Family Fun Circus and Camel Show. We also had great arena events which were an addi- tional $10 admission at the gate. Friday and Saturday night of the first weekend, we held our Rodeo which in-
cluded barrel racing and bull riding. The second Friday and Saturday crowds could see the Truck and Tractor Pull, and on Sunday afternoon the Demolition Derby. Again in 2018, our Youth Livestock Program continued to
grow with an addition of a Market Steer and Market Lamb Show and Sales. We had an inaugural Market Weekend at the fair, where swine, steers, lambs and turkeys were ex- hibited and held a Market Animal Sale the first Saturday of the fair. The Livestock program had a total of 1121 entries with 499 exhibitors showing in swine, steer, lamb, turkey, beef, rabbit, poultry, dairy, sheep and goat. Another first this year, was our Youth Livestock Awards Banquet held one month after the fair. We had over 400 guests in at- tendance to recognize our top exhibitors in each species
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and named our first overall premier exhibitor. Arnold’s Amuse-
ments provided the carnival again at our 2018 Fair and we offered ride armband specials Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays of the fair. We unfortunately had record high temperatures the first week of the fair which made things quite hot for our fair guests and volunteers. The second week of the fair brought cooler weather which was a welcomed sight. New this year, we ex-
panded our STEAM area to include Science, Tech- nology, Engineering, Art/ Ag and Math educational interactive exhibits and displays. We offered Block Building, Egg Drop, Solar Cooking and Marshmallow Contests, which engaged youth of elementary and middle school ages to compete. In our enclosed climate-controlled exhibition building, we
housed our Arts and Crafts, Photography and Fine Art Competitions which had an increase in all areas for exhib- its. A walk-up youth cupcake decorating contest was held daily wHere we awarded Fair Food Dollars to our win- ners. In the exhibition building, was also our walk-thru interactive Butterfly Garden, Re- cycled Yard Art dis- plays and our Youth Horticulture Show. Fair guests could also visit our Hometown Hillsborough
Historical Area, where they could step back in time to see antique farm equipment and machinery. The additional of our replica packing house held farm tools that many could try to identify. Educational displays including cane syrup making and whip cracking all took place under our large oaks in the historical area. In our new Entertainment Pavilion, we featured local tal-
ent daily that included gospel, country, rap and clogging groups. Also, on stage was our Children’s Harvest Pag- eant where we crowned our junior queens and had our Baby Parade which featured the smallest of our fairgoers! Each Sunday of the fair, we held our Gospel Jam on stage which featured local gospel talent and church talents. As we continue to grow, we look forward to another suc-
cessful year in 2019! Our fair will be held Oct 17-20 & 24- 27, 2019 and we are going to LET THE GOOD TIMES GROW!
FAIRCRACKER-SPRING 2019
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