It’s that time of year again. In just a few short days, the Franklin County Fairgrounds will fill with excited children and nostalgic adults eager to take a ride on the Ferris Wheel or follow their noses to Hager’s Farm Market’s fried dough stand.
The Franklin County Fair returns to the fairgrounds on Wisdom Way from Thursday, Sept. 8, to Sunday, Sept. 11, for its 168th year.
According to Fred Steiner, president of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, the organization that holds the fair each year, the fair got its start in 1848 at a much smaller venue — the Greenfield Town Common.
“They started this as a means for the farmers to show off their produce and their livestock,” Steiner explained.
Throughout the years, he added, the fair has stayed true to its agricultural focus with displays of cows, sheep, rabbits, chickens and goats. This year, there will be more than 300 head of cattle and full cages of chickens and rabbits.
Steiner said the fair moved to Power Court before finally settling at the fairgrounds — which had previously housed a military installation — sometime before 1870. Given the fairgrounds’ rich history, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
“The Roundhouse is 116 years old,” Steiner said proudly. “The Wells family built it for Franklin County so people could come here and have a social gathering.”
How appropriate then, that the round house and the surrounding grounds be the home of the fair. One of the oldest continuous fairs in the country, Steiner said the Franklin County Fair has brought people together year after year.
“It’s the people you see, the friends you see,” he said. “This is what it was designed for — to see your friends, to show your products. A gathering point.”
Each year, Steiner makes sure to offer two demolition derbies, livestock shows, midway rides, Flying High Frisbee Dogs, clowns, oxen and horse pulls, a talent show, a firefighter’s muster, apple pie and hot dog eating contests, a truck pull, racing pigs, a parade, bingo, a baby barnyard, a craft fair and sulky racing.
Out of a long list of events and attractions from Thursday through Sunday, Steiner said there are two attractions he will never stop: senior bingo and the racing pigs, two of the fair’s biggest draws. Steiner said the 100-foot long bingo tent is always packed with people, and the racing pig demonstrations are well-attended.
This year, however, the fair’s tradition of having racing pig demonstrations was put in jeopardy.
Robinson’s Racing Pigs, the organization that usually runs the shows, totaled their vehicle in a car accident near Boston, Steiner said, and the driver left the company. Given the circumstances, Robinson’s Racing Pigs were forced to cancel the Franklin County Fair shows a mere month before the fair.
“I didn’t get much sleep for a couple of nights before I got it all locked down,” Steiner said. “I wanted to concentrate on it and get it taken care of because it’s a big factor of the fair.”
Remarkably, within a week, Steiner arranged for Swifty Swine Productions to cover the shows, a new face at the fair. Not only do Swifty Swine Productions offer racing pigs, but swimming pigs, too.
For the first time in a number of years, the fair will also have seven pens filled with goats in the poultry barn.
A tractor and engine show is another long-lost fair feature to be revived in 2016.
“I get a lot of requests about that,” Steiner said of the tractor show. “People emailed me after the fair last year and got me thinking about it.”
Steiner said about a half dozen people have signed up to bring their tractors, and he’s eager to add more. There is no registration fee.
“Over time, I can build this up to be a nice show again,” he said.
“I’m trying to appeal to everybody and everything,” Steiner said of the new features. “Every year, we keep trying to make it better.”
Over the years, Steiner and other members of the Franklin County Agricultural Society have revived old fair favorites, such as sulky racing.
“I used to see a lot of horse racing when I was a kid,” Steiner said. A Greenfield resident all his life, 69-year-old Steiner remembers coming to the fair as a 5-year-old boy, and roaming the cattle barns with his uncle.
Now, the fair offers horse racing demonstrations where the driver, dressed in silks, directs his or her horse twice around the track. Steiner said everything is the same as in a normal race, but gambling isn’t allowed.
Steiner said the races bring back memories for older folks, as do the horse and oxen pulls.
“It’s coming back, and people love sitting there just watching the horses and oxen do their thing,” he said.
With more than 60 years of fair memories himself, overseeing the Franklin County Fair means a lot to Steiner.
“I always loved the fair,” Steiner said, remembering when the fair was held Sunday through Wednesday. “You just fall in love with the fair.”
Even Steiner’s 37-year-old daughter Jennifer Steiner grew up attending the fair with her father, and was instrumental to making the midway ride “The Zipper” a permanent fixture.
“She was right. It’s one of the more popular rides,” Fred Steiner said, adding that the midway is wildly popular among children.
Steiner has been president of the Franklin County Agricultural Society for three years, also serving as director and treasurer. Ensuring that the fair is a success each year takes a lot of preparation, Steiner said.
“We need more people to come join us to continue this on for years to come — the fair and the upkeep of the property here,” he said.
Prisoners from the Franklin County Jail work on painting, laying gravel and repairing the fencing prior to each fair.
“Usually, by Thursday, this place looks like there’s never been a fair here,” Steiner commented.
Additionally, the Franklin County Agricultural Society had the historic round house renovated in 2011, preserving its “pride and joy” for future years. The round house holds a popular craft fair.
Volunteers, Steiner continued, are invaluable.
“These people have given their lives to making this fair what it is, and they don’t expect anything back,” he said.
Steiner said the society starts officially planning the fair as soon as Jan. 1 rolls around, and often sooner.
“That’s not to say that the day after the fair, we don’t start thinking about the fair,” he said.
The volunteers’ hard work pays off, though, when as many as 30,000 men, women and children turn out between Thursday and Sunday to enjoy the rides, exhibits, food and fun. Steiner said 25,000 is an average turnout that has dwindled in recent years due to the economy, but that good weather can lead to an increased turnout.
Fair guests come north from Springfield, west from Boston and south from Vermont to attend.
“We’ve had people from well out of this area come,” Steiner said, citing Penn Jillette as an example.
Jillette, a magician known for his work as one half of the Penn & Teller duo, performs regularly in Las Vegas. But, being from Greenfield, he sometimes returns to the area just for the fair.
“It’s just the fact that it’s the Franklin County Fair,” Steiner said. “People come back year after year because it’s a tradition.”
It’s a tradition that continues to be passed down through local families, who want their children to have memorable fair experiences like they had.
“We hear ‘I grew up with this at the fair,’” Steiner said. “As it comes down the line, the younger ones bring their young ones. That’s part of the tradition.”