By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
CAIRO — The Greene County Youth Fair will open this Thursday and runs through Sunday.
The fair kicks off with the opening ceremony at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 27, and will run each day through Sunday’s closing ceremony at 2:30 p.m., with plenty of activities, programs, exhibits and competitions throughout the four-day weekend.
Each year’s fair in July gives area children and organizations the chance to show off their knowledge and experience, particularly in agriculture.
The fair will be held at Cairo’s Angelo Canna Town Park and will be open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with fireworks on Saturday at nightfall; the fair will run 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, when it will conclude.
The theme of this year’s fair will be “Enchanted Forest.”
Each day has a slew of activities and competitions, starting with the opening day’s poultry show, live musical bands, goat shows, K9 demonstration and an ice cream social.
Exhibits, competitions and demonstrations by local youth and their livestock and other agricultural activities will continue through the weekend with swine shows, Irish step dancing, a 4-H fashion show, a classic car show, rabbit agility and hopping contest, a goat obstacle course and exhibits of horses, ducks, chickens, cows and more.
This year there will be two new shows: a cavy show on Friday, July 28, and a llama/alpaca show on Saturday, July 29. Cavy is a family of rodents, including guinea pigs.
There will also be an array of educational exhibits by agricultural groups, community organizations and others.
There is no admission fee to the fair, with organizers billing it as the last free fair in the state.
The Greene County Youth Fair was started by Alfred Partridge in 1949. Partridge was the leader of the Ashland Blue Ribbon 4-H Club and organized a 4-H Club Fair in Ashland that year, according to the organization’s website.
The fair has grown over the years and has called several locations home, including Windham and Durham. It was renamed the Greene County Youth Fair in the mid-1950s and was moved to the town park in Cairo in 1995, where it continues to be held each year.
Thousands of children have participated in the fair throughout the years.
For more information about the fair and the schedule of events, visit www.thegreenecountyyouthfair.com.
