A few thoughts on the 2023 Whitley County Fair

This week I would like to take just a few moments to offer a few of my main takeaways from this year’s Whitley County Fair.

First and foremost, kudos to everyone who had a hand in making the fair happen again this year. People simply do not realize the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to make an event like this a reality, so if you were involved in any way, shape or form – thank you.

Now, I was not present for every offering on the schedule, but I was there for much of it. Allow me to go rapid fire as I offer up some of my thoughts…

• There needs to be more local girls in the Miss Fair Pageant next year. I thought the nine young ladies who competed in the fair this year all did a fantastic job, but only one was from our local area. The next closest was from Barbourville, and then there were several from other parts of the state. I get that many of our Whitley County girls may not be into the pageant scene, but I would urge many of you out there to consider doing just this one competition next year. It is our fair, and it would be cool to see a good amount of local representation.

• A special “thank you” to everyone who volunteered their time (and comfort) to sit in the dunking booth. A combination of elected officials, coaches, law enforcement officers and local businesspeople all went into the booth, and inevitably took the plunge, in support of the Whitley County Fiscal Court’s Annual Kayaking for Kids benefit race. The dunking booth was, without a doubt, one of the most popular features of the entire fair, as I saw folks young and old having a great time trying to send the volunteers into the tank with a well-placed pitch. Judge Executive Pat White, Jr. told me that the booth helped raise well over $600 for Kayaking for Kids this Year. Fantastic!

• Although I wasn’t able to stay for the entirety of this year’s demolition derby, I thoroughly enjoyed what I was able to see of it. I did get pelted with mud pretty good at the very start of the derby, however, which ruined one of my shirts and caused me a fair amount of work later that evening to get my camera cleaned back up. Oh well, we’ll just call it an occupational hazard.

• Another definite highlight of the fair was the inflatables that were located in one of the fields at the fairgrounds. From what I could tell, there was a pretty decent sized group of kids jumping and sliding on those pretty much every evening. The most popular option, by far, was the giant water slide. Both of my kids loved this, and probably would’ve gone down it 100 times if I had let them. FYI – if you check our Facebook page, you will see that I got a pretty good video clip of a couple of older kids going down the slide. I also got good and soaked while filming the clip, but it was worth it.

• I didn’t get to see as much of the musical offerings as I would have liked last week, but I did want to share a couple of suggestions when making plans for next year’s fair. First, if possible, it would definitely be good to have at least one set of bleachers placed over by the stage. Many folks brought their own folding chairs, but many did not. I think it would be good to have at least a little bit of seating available for folks who may walk up and decide to catch a show. Second, it would probably be good to have the music start either an hour earlier, or an hour later, instead of having it start at the exact same time as the demolition derby. I don’t think there was as much of an issue on Friday night and Saturday night when it came to visitors being able to catch the musical acts AND the horse show/mud bog events, but on Thursday it definitely created a conflict, as both started at 7 p.m. and folks simply couldn’t be in two places at once.

That last item is really my only gripe, as everything else seemed to go really well. Again, I wasn’t there for every single thing, but most of what I have seen and heard since last Saturday evening has been positive.

I hear that the wheels are already in motion when it comes to how the fair board can continue to grow the event in an effort to hopefully make each year’s Whitley County Fair even bigger and better than the last. This is encouraging news, and I look forward to seeing what they will come up with next summer.

Once again, great job to everyone involved, and thanks for keeping this important tradition alive for the families of Whitley County!