There’s a lot you can do in a half-hour at the Delaware County Fair, as one fair-goer found out Monday afternoon.
There was a decent crowd in the Pig & Lamb Barn to watch the Goat Costume Contest. The 16 Junior Fair contestants and their goats were all decked out — some as superheroes, and there was even a Hillary Clinton. However, there were two winners — a young lady dressed as a butcher and her goat for best matching costume; and another young lady whose goat was covered with a homemade Caterpillar tractor box as the most original costume.
“That was thinking outside the box,” quipped Delaware County Agricultural Society President Frank Reinhard, who was judging the event. “A lot of work went into this.”
“This is the third year for the contest, and more kids are entering it,” said Julie Lucas, who heads the goat department for the Junior Fair.
Victory was short-lived, however, because some of the kids had to change clothes and get the goats out of their costumes. Next up was the Meat Breeding and Market Goat Show, followed by the Market Beef and Feeder Calf Show; and it was going to start promptly.
If you weren’t able to see the goats yesterday, there’s a goat show starting at 8:30 a.m. in the Pig & Lamb Barn; as well as the Market Goat sale at 6:30 p.m. in the Junior Fair Show Arena.
Fair staff said there are a number of animal-owner costume contests. For example, there’s a Small Animal Costume Contest at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Junior Fair Building.
After a quick stop on the midway to get fair food and drink, another contest was spotted — a Watermelon-Eating Contest at the WDLR Stage. There were three divisions — youth, teen, and adult — and the idea was to eat five slices of watermelon down to the rind. In mere minutes, things got sloppier than a Gallagher comedy concert.
One local competitor, Joe Pennington, had won the previous day’s Hot-Dog-Eating Contest. He didn’t bite the melon — he used a buzz-saw motion with hands and mouth to take it in. However, Pennington was the runner-up in the adult division, bested by a woman from Hawaii who was part of a family visiting the fair.
The fair continues through Saturday. If you go, try to spend more than a half-hour there.
