177th Franklin County Fair brings ‘high energy’ with new additions

GREENFIELD — With a new mascot, performance and feature calling back to the fair’s history, the 177th Franklin County Fair celebrated both a future of fresh thrills and the county’s past traditions.

“It helps bring the community together,” said Tony King of Greenfield as he roamed the fair on Friday, carrying his four-year-old son.

“It’s just that fun family atmosphere,” echoed Christopher Sanchez of Sweet Memories Donuts, a new vendor at the fair.

The parade brought the fair into full swing on Thursday, marking the start of the weekend’s traditional events, from the livestock shows and art on display in the Roundhouse, to hot dog eating contests, wings, and fried dough and other signature events beyond the typical fair tractor pull.

Friday at the fair started with the ribbon cutting for the new Community Pavilion in the center of the Infield Entertainment Area, the first new building on the fairgrounds in 40 years. Fair volunteers, visitors and a new face at the fairgrounds — the fair’s mooing mascot Franklin Cow-nty — listened to Michael Nelson, president of the Franklin County Agricultural Society and local and state officials mark the milestone.

“It inspires people to want to come here,” said Koby Gardner-Levine, regional manager for U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s office. “It creates more excitement, and what I’m seeing all over is community excitement that is growing and will continue to grow with this momentum.”

“Did you notice the license plates?” state Rep. Susannah Whipps asked the group. “I saw Maine, I saw New Hampshire, I saw Connecticut… [The fair’s] not just a fun, awesome place to go and check out and see your neighbors, this is an economic driver — these people are going to gas up before they leave town, they might buy dinner in town, they might be staying over.”

According to a study from 2024, the fair generated $21.5 million for the area, Nelson said.

Greenfield’s Chief of Staff Erin Anhalt highlighted other recent additions to the fairgrounds, such as paving to boost the site’s accessibility, a nursing station and a Sensory Room designed for neurodivergent visitors.

“It’s not just about economic development, it’s about being a part of the community,” Anhalt said.

Parked inside the Community Pavilion between picnic tables is the city’s 1867 stagecoach, a bridge between the fairgrounds’ past and future, according to Greenfield City Council member Sarah Bolduc, who has seen photographs of the stagecoach cruising through the fair’s parade in 1897.

“There are layers here of history, and it’s very seldom that we get the opportunity to reach out and touch a piece of history like this,” Bolduc said. “It has history with the fairgrounds, it has history with the Agricultural Society, it belongs here.”

While Nelson said many changes to the fairgrounds have focused on fixing issues from the past like deferred maintenance, the Community Pavilion is “about looking to the future.”

“It’s going to be part of our history not just right now,” added Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jessye Dean, “but for generations to come.”

Next to the Community Pavilion, about 50 fairgoers gathered to catch the latest act to join the fair’s lineup of entertainment — “Thrill Extravaganza.”

In the act, a performer walked and jumped rope on a spinning wheel towering as high as the Ferris wheel behind it before another climbed into a handstand atop a stack of five chairs.

“The higher he goes, the more difficult and dangerous it becomes!” hooted Saturn Garcia, performer and CEO of Thrill Extravaganza Entertainment.

For the finale of stunts, Gomez and his brother-in-law revved up their dirt bikes. Instead of the grass, the pair zipped across a round metal cage, seemingly defying gravity. They finished with a fist bump as the audience cheered.

Among the loudest in the crowd were siblings Kelsey and Chae Boutwell of Greenfield, who grew up coming to the fair every year with their uncle Ted Butynski and other family.

“It’s unique, it’s high energy,” Kelsey Boutwell said of Thrill Extravaganza. “When they were on that (wheel), I felt a lot of anxiety — the best kind of anxiety.”

Saturn Garcia said the act’s trio comes from seven generations of circus performers. After performing with circuses for years, they decided to “flip the script onto stunts,” Garcia said, sipping a lemonade from one of the fair’s many food vendors.

The group goes “wherever the money is,” Garcia said. On Monday, the self-described “adrenaline junkies” will take their show closer to its next stops in California and Texas.

While the stunts are live, Garcia said the performances are the products of careful choreography and years of practice. Garcia has spent 27 years zipping his dirt bike through the metal circle.

“For us, it’s controlled chaos,” he said with a grin. Plus, he added, “Gravity’s our friend.”

The performers feed off the crowd’s energy. Although each trick still comes with risks, Garcia said, “It’s a risk we’re willing to take for the love of entertaining.”