The 175th Dutchess County Fair

 

I visited the Duchess County Fair this summer, my second large fair. I have previously been to another fair as a kid, so I wanted to check out one again. The Dutchess County Fair is the closest to me, a short train ride away on the Metro North. 

And man, this fair is big. Every fair food you can imagine (plus Chinese food), a mouse betting game, a million different lemonade stands, and random stuff for sale. 

The beginning of the fair featured a petting zoo, a free petting zoo actually. It started raining the first day we came and had to run under the cover of the petting zoo tent, sitting under there with all the animals and a thousand kids till it stopped raining. I really enjoyed the hand painted signs and clown garbage cans!

Baby pigs in the birthing tent (!) they had a whole tent full of animal mothers that had just given birth. The cow had a baby was was born the same day. 

Some old County fair posters on display. They were next to a display showing letterpress printing, I wish I could have gotten a poster. 

Some fun neon from the fair. I love the lemonade cup designs so much. 

Ok so, this is the most important thing here. I've never seen a game like this in my life, so I was obsessed. You put down a few dollars on different words, they're all on the wheel. A little mouse is put under that tin cover, then he runs into one of the holes. And if he runs into the holes you bet on, you get a prize. I was so desperate to win this and would have stayed here way longer, because this game is addicting. 

Some of the most wonderful, strange hand painted cartoon characters at one of the exhibits. There isn't much to see here besides some animal skulls, lizards, and I think a small alligator? These were for sure the highlight of the whole thing.

We looked at all the animal barns, which admittedly gets a little tiring when you're not allowed to pet them. Was very impressed by the fancy chickens, though.

Now we come to one of the best attractions here, the pig racing. Each round doesn't last more than a minute, there's super loud music playing, and it's a lot of fun to watch. This was right by the entrance, so we saw it a few times. One time with very fast pigs, and another time with the very large pigs pictured above. One of the most unique things I've ever seen for sure, I don't think a county fair should be without a pig race now.