Ticket sales up as thousands flock to Fayette County Fair
DUNBAR TWP. – Sitting on a bench in the Fayette County Fairgrounds, Charlie and LeWanda Yocum enjoy the sights, sounds and smells surrounding them. LeWanda Yocum, an “I Love the Fayette County Fair” button attached to her shirt, said she has been involved with the fair for 49 years. “I’m a country person and farm oriented,” she said. “And I like the people and the atmosphere.”
For the past 30 years, Yocum has served as the fair’s art and photography chairwoman.
“I tell people all the time that this is our vacation,” she said. “We come to the fair.”
“It’s our entertainment,” Charlie Yocum added. “We see the same people every year. Their big smiles make your day.”
The Yocums were among thousands of longtime and first-time visitors to the fair, which opened Thursday for the 49th time.
Like the Yocums, Bill Jackson, fair board president, was smiling on opening night. Jackson said advanced ticket sales were “way beyond expectations,” and he sees the high sales as a “positive sign” that patrons appreciate the new one-price admission.
This year, for $8 patrons have access to all exhibits, shows and carnival rides.
Admission to the fair, last year, was $5 for patrons 12 years and older and $1 for children 3 to 11 years old.
Patrons also paid a separate admission to nighttime shows, carnival rides and headlining musicians.
Ashlie Bryan, a fairground staff member, said 9,000 advance tickets were sold.
“We expect big crowds because it is pretty much unlimited,” Bryan said.
Attendance dropped last year from the average 85,000 to 90,000 to 70,000 to 75,000.
Jackson said another “big change” this year is a new carnival, Powers Great American Midways. The company brought in “bright, shiny, big rides,” Jackson said, adding that the one-price admission helped obtain the “best carnival on the East Coast.”
“They get a piece of our gate, and people ride for free,” he explained.
Jackson said one of the fair’s “big draws” is the Fayette County Fair Queen contest, which was held Thursdsay night.
Amanda Springer, 17, of Vanderbilt took the prize this year.
Passing on her crown to Springer, 2002 Queen Christie Regula of Uniontown said the fair has offered “great experiences and so many memories.”
Regula participated in 4-H for 11 years before becoming queen and said the fair is an opportunity for “the community to come together.”
That sense of community keeps patrons, including the Yocums, coming back each year.
“It makes up for all the bad things going on in the world,” Charlie Yocum said.
A schedule for the next two days of the fair is as follows:
Friday
8 a.m.: Judging of 4-H carcass lambs on foot (Show Arena).
9 a.m.: Judging of open and 4-H breeding sheep (Show Arena).
9 a.m.: Judging of open and 4-H market breeding goats (Goat Barn).
9 a.m.: Judging of wool exhibits.
9 a.m.: Judging of art and photography entries.
9 a.m.: Judging in home economics building.
10:30 a.m.: Judging of Grange displays.
1 p.m.: Judging of Mason Dixon Polled Hereford Show (Indoor Arena); Mason Dixon junior steer show; 4-H carcass steer show; feeder calf show.
1 to 11 p.m.: Carnival.
4:30 p.m.: Young ladies and shepherd lead line contest (Indoor Arena).
4:30 p.m.: Judging of 4-H carcass swine (Show Arena; open barrow show; open and 4-H breeding swine.
6 p.m.: 4-H dog show – freestyle competition (Youth Building).
7 p.m.: Rock Garden (Fiddler’s Building).
7 p.m.: 4 X 4 truck mud races (Outdoor Arena); 4 X 4 quad mud races (Outdoor Arena).
8 p.m.: Povertyneck Hillbillies (Indoor Arena).
Saturday
8 a.m.: Fayette County 4-H horse show (Horse Arena).
9 a.m.: Judging of light horses.
9 a.m. to noon: Enter apple pies and vegetable quick breads (Fiddler’s Building).
10 a.m.: Southwestern Pennsylvania championship Holstein show (Indoor Arena).
11 a.m.: Garden tractor-pulling contest (Outdoor Arena).
1 p.m.: Judging of the vegetable quick bread contest (Fiddler’s Building).
1 to 11 p.m.: Carnival.
2 p.m.: Judging of the apple pie contest (Fiddlers’ Building).
3 to 9 p.m.: County 4-H/Youth Showcase Day (Youth Building).
5 to 7 p.m.: Uniontown YMCA gymnastics team exhibition (Fiddlers Building).
5 to 9 p.m.: 4-H/youth talent revue (Youth Building).
6 p.m.: Old-time farm dead weight tractor-pulling contest (Outdoor Arena).
8 p.m.: Singer Tammy Cochran (Indoor-Arena).