Festival season is upon us, starting with the 2022 Whitley County Fair

Corbin’s Independence Day celebration Sunday evening seemed to go pretty well with some relatively nice weather for July.

There were a handful of vendors selling things from lighted swords and inflatable aliens for the kids to funnel cakes and kettle corn in The Arena parking lot.

The festivities started with the bands “Ruthless Vendetta” and “Gravel Switch” performing free concerts for the crowd. (I personally preferred “Gravel Switch” myself, but to each their own.)

The band kept playing right up until a few minutes prior to the fireworks show, which was pretty good.

While I’ve seen bigger crowds in past years for Corbin’s fireworks parked up top at The Arena, given that it took a little while to get out there, they must have been packed in at The Corbin Center, Tri-County Cineplex and various other local businesses with parking lots having nice views of the fireworks.

The organizers did a great job, as usual, of putting on this event.

Speaking of events, we have coming up what I affectionately refer to as “festival season” with the Whitley County Fair taking place next week, NIBROC taking place in August and Old Fashioned Trading Days slated for September.

This year the Whitley County Fair has expanded to four nights. It will kick off with free concerts on Wednesday, July 13, with Will Snyder performing in addition to “Three Years Apart.”

In addition there will be a dunking booth set up where some local officials will be taking the plunge to raise money for this year’s Kayaking for Kids kayak and jon boat race that will take place on Aug. 6. Proceeds go to benefit Upward basketball programs in Corbin and Williamsburg in addition to local family resource centers at elementary schools across the county so come out and dunk a politician. You know you want to!

On Thursday, July 14, the demolition derby will be returning for its second year at the fair. In its inaugural year, this event was definitely a hit with over 600 people turning out to watch junked up cars smash into one another.

On Friday, July 15, the horse show returns. This event always draws a lot of participants and observers.

On Saturday, July 16, the mud bog will provide some nice, clean, yet muddy entertainment as four-wheelers and four-wheel drive vehicles plow through mud filled pits to see who can get through in the fast time.

I would encourage everyone to come out and support this event, which will take place at the Whitley County Fair Grounds at Savoy.

As with all of our local festivals and fairs, hundreds of hours of behind the scenes work goes into making these events a reality and most of the work, if not all of it, is done by volunteers.

Remember that our local fairs and festivals are a great place to run into folks, who you may not have seen for a while.

If the pandemic taught us nothing else (besides maybe how to properly wash our hands…LOL), it should be to not take for granted being able to go out and socialize with people.

Suffice it to say that after I cover these three festivals and events, the last thing I want to do on my day off is go to anything with the words “fair” or “festival” in the title…LOL.

This is part of the reason why you have never seen me at the state fair, which I understand is a pretty good event.