Cape Cod - Index

Cape Cod - travel_guide_2008 - Index

■ cape & islands fairs
DOWN-HOME AFFAIR
The Barnstable County Fair is fun, family
friendly and not just for locals.
BY TIM WELLER • PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEORGE PEET
It’s considered a local event, but it attracts thousands of summer visitors. It’s safe, but at times
a little scary (in a good sort of way). It’s family friendly, but a perfect place for teens to hang
out. It employs only three full-time staff members, but relies on hundreds of committed
volunteers. It’s comforting and familiar, but each year it’s a little bit different.
Welcome to the Barnstable County Fair, one of the oldest in the country, which will attract
upwards of 100,000 people during its nine-day run beginning July 18.
The fair operates on an 86-acre site along Route 151 on the East Falmouth-Mashpee town line.
Like other county fairs, it has carnival rides, games of chance, corn dogs and fried dough, clowns,
concerts and demolition derbies.
But this county fair also remains true to its roots.
“We’re very hands-on,” John Sidebottom says as he watches dozens of excited, wide-eyed
children line up to hold just-hatched baby chicks. “In a lot of ways, this is the heart of the fair. Many
of these kids have never seen a barnyard animal. They’ve certainly never touched one. They’ve
never been on a farm. They’ve never watched a cow being milked or a sheep being sheared. But
you can see all that here. You can get up close and smell the smells. You can touch. You can feel.
That’s what’s special.”
As superintendent of livestock, Sidebottom is responsible for all things animal. And make no
mistake–livestock is big at this fair. From beef to sheep, cows to pigs, the fair’s livestock areas take
up the most space. And from Sidebottom’s point of view, the animal exhibits draw the most curious.
Sidebottom says part of his job is educating an increasingly citified and suburbanized public. “I look
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