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Why the Fair still matters
CANFIELD
Three-year-old Ellie Borovitcky probably won’t have a farm when she grows up.
She might have pets but not livestock. She might have a garden but not full-scale crops.
Still, her dad, Terry Borovitcky, and aunt, Donna Saadey, said it’s important for Ellie to come to the Canfield Fair.
“I wanted to bring my daughter because I remember coming here with my grandma and mom. We’d come to see the animals,” said Terry, a Canfield native.
Donna said she comes every year and wanted Ellie to see the livestock, vegetables and antique tractors.
“The fair is great and it’s educational. She’s seen so many animals: bunnies, ducks and baby animals at the [Old MacDonald’s] barn,” she said.
The learning that comes from an agricultural fair, among other factors, is why many experts agree that the traditional county fair remains relevant — even as more than 80 percent of the U.S. population lives in urban areas.
Fairs are teaching lessons that used to be available at home, said Marla Calico, education director for the International Association of Fairs and Expositions.
“We can be in the virtual world, and most are there, seeking information,” Calico said. “But it does not take the place of the real world. Fairs are finding their slot. [Many people] don’t have mom or dad’s or even grandpa’s farm to go to any more.”
The number of farmers entering Canfield Fair competitions drops every year, “but our 4-H numbers are climbing every year, surprisingly,” said Ward Campbell, a fair board member who oversees the youth development program.
The surprise isn’t just because family farms are dwindling, but also because the cost to raise an animal creeps up each year. Even owners of animals in the market division, which are sold, usually only break even, he said.
Campbell credits the increase of 4-H participants to the diversification of 4-H projects, such as writing and gardening.
4-H involves competition, and that goes back to the early agricultural fair, Calico said.
“We trace fairs back to a group of people coming together to promote agriculture, to create a once-a-year opportunity for bringing the community together,” she said.
County fairs have their roots in Europe and rapidly spread up and down the Eastern seaboard in the U.S., Calico added.
“As the nation grew, it spread westward. What you find is this very historical beginning, and it’s just been part and parcel of America,” she said.
“It’s the very fabric of the community, particularly in the specific locations. Some fairs are celebrating not just 100 years but more, and that ... is a testament to the role that fairs play.”
Drake Hokanson randomly chose hundreds of fairs to visit in 35 states and documented his experiences in “Purebred & Homegrown: America’s County Fairs,” which he co-wrote with Carol Kratz. He has not attended the Canfield Fair.
“I think the relevance of the agricultural fair and county fairs in particular goes back to this idea that Americans still see ourselves as kind of an agrarian nation even though we mostly live in cities and suburbs,” Hokanson said.
“There’s this Jeffersonian idea that we are this broad nation of amber waves of grain, and we like to re-experience our agrarian roots,” he continued.
Fairs have evolved, Hokanson said. In the 19th century, farmers taught other farmers how to be more successful. In the 20th century, that farmer-to-farmer teaching was still there, but there was also a focus on molding responsible adults. In the 21st century, the central role is to teach people where their food comes from.
This transition has helped fairs remain strong in local communities, he said.
“I think there’s some fairs out there that are threatened, and they tend to be in rural areas where they lost populations and perhaps created one fair for two counties,” he said.
In Ohio, Hokanson found that’s not likely to be a problem because historically many fair attendees are from urban and suburban areas.
Fair attendance overall has risen in the last decade, he said.
The last three years have seen attendance at the Canfield Fair rise from 302,186 in 2008, to 318,748 in 2009 and 327,631 in 2010. The Canfield Fair’s record total attendance of 539,437 was set in 1979.
All of the fairs Hokanson attended had certain components in common. All had animals and crops; competition; entertainment; and a sense of reunion, he said.
“We have a very basic human need to get together with other people and going to the fair together as a group with friends or family, we fulfill it,” he said. “Our online communities are satisfying to a certain extent, but they can’t replace face-to-face contact.”
Campbell said the feeling of reunion is palpable at the Canfield Fair.
“I walk and see people stopping and talking to each other, and I talk to people I saw last year at the fair but haven’t seen in the meantime,” Campbell said.
He said part of the fair’s appeal is intangible.
“It’s hard to explain the excitement. There’s nothing better than seeing that,” Campbell said.
On the fairgrounds, a girl named Ellie seemed to have caught that excitement as she munched on a corn dog and took in her surroundings. She was sitting with her dad and aunt on benches around The Rock, a 50-ton boulder near the Canfield Fair grandstand.
Donna, her aunt, looked up and said the fair will never stop being relevant.
“I would like to see it keep on going,” Donna said.
Then she turned and asked Ellie what they should see next.