I was impressed with the offerings at this year’s Whitley County Fair

The Whitley County Fair is turning into a pretty good little festival.

Last week the four-night Whitley County Fair took place and I was out there on three of those nights, most of which there was a pretty good turnout.

I thought adding a fourth night of entertainment went well with a couple of concerts last Wednesday, inflatables, the dunking booth, the antique tractor show, and the cornhole tournament all taking place at the fairgrounds. No admission was charged this first night.

Kudos to Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr., 911 Director Jason Wilson and Corbin City Commissioner Seth Reeves for getting in the dunking booth and getting dunked multiple times. All were good sports about it.

I didn’t make it to the demolition derby Thursday night as our Sports Editor Trevor Sherman went down there to take in the competition. I did see the demolition derby during its inaugural year last year, and it drew a big crowd, which turned out to see drivers in old, junked cars ramming into one another trying to knock each other out of the race.

I was a little disappointed in the turnout for the horse show Friday night as it traditionally draws a large crowd annually. I can’t help but wonder if maybe there was another competing horse show that evening in the region.

The crowd Saturday night for the mud bog more than made up for Friday night’s crowd as local residents braved the heat to watch people on four-wheelers and in four-wheel drive trucks try to get through mud-filled pits in the fastest times.

It all makes for a good time for local residents, who seem to be supporting this edition of the Whitley County Fair quite well.

The county fair originally existed for about 20 years until the fair lost its site in either 1984 or 1985 at the Williamsburg city school.

In 1997, the fair returned thanks to the efforts of Mike Sharpe, Harry Alder and several other members of the new fair board. Although it didn’t have a fair grounds then, the fair board was able to utilize 3-R Arena for the mule pull and horse show and other things of that nature and the Whitley County High School campus for the carnival and concerts the first couple of years. This incarnation of the fair continued through 2016 with first Sharpe and then Alder serving as the fair board chairman. The biggest drawback this version of the fair had was that it couldn’t hold all of its events in one space due to the lack of a fairgrounds. Fortunately, this is not a problem any more.

After a one-year hiatus in 2017, the fair returned with a new fair board in 2018 and 2019 followed by a pandemic cancellation the next year.

Now it is being held at what are referred to as the Whitley County Fair Grounds in Savoy.

Most people probably don’t realize that the Whitley County Fiscal Court purchased this 100-acre site in 2010 to use as a potential industrial site.

While it hasn’t attracted any industry (at least not yet), the county has made pretty good use of the site in recent years.

The Whitley County Detention Center used a good chunk of the land to plant a jail garden for several years. It got discontinued when the work release program stopped due to COVID-19 during the pandemic. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the jail garden return to part of this land next spring, though.

The fiscal court has used the property as a site for a bluegrass festival and has built an RV site there complete with a shower house.

In addition, while it isn’t a boat ramp, there is a river access point there, which is where this year’s Kayaking for Kids race will start on Aug. 6.

My congratulations to the Whitley County Fair Board for putting on a great event this year, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next year. Hopefully, they can add a new event or two and keep growing the fair each year.