Topsfield Fair 2010

[nonelvis]

We spent most of yesterday with family and friends at the Topsfield Fair, a 192-year-old agricultural fair held about half an hour north of us, in Topsfield, MA.



The sleepy goats from yesterday's APAD(ish) shot.



Possibly a bunny; possibly a bedroom slipper.



I have totally non-ironic love for the vegetable dioramas made by local kids; they're my favorite part of the fair, right after the deep-fried cholesterol-on-a-stick fair food. (This year's unintentional commentary on the American diet: a giant helping of french fries served in a cardboard dog dish.)

Anyway, it seemed like there were fewer dioramas this year, but we loved the ones we saw. Like the Pumpkin Medusa:



Not a diorama, but still cute: the artichoke hedgehog!



The squash people, made mostly of delicata squash, with hydrangea hair and acorn eyes. I LOVE THIS.



As usual, I avoided the carnival rides, since I'm never convinced they're safe, but this one was very tempting: you get sealed up in an inflatable plastic balloon and can roll around a pool. (I saw something similar to this on an episode of The Amazing Race once, and was dying to try that then, too.)



There were also several stations for the creatively named "Jumpy Thing," bungee-cord tethers you could use to bounce high in the air:



My nearly four-year-old niece enjoyed it a lot, but she'll do better next year when she's stronger and weighs more:



For some reason, the big prizes this year were giant stuffed bananas in both plain and Rasta versions (complete with dreadlocks):



More photos in the complete set on Flickr.

Comments

[bunny42.livejournal.com]

I looked up diorama, and I still don't understand why the Medusa was one, but the hedgehog wasn't. I always thought they involved a scene of some sort, an event or historical period or something.

You'd never catch claustrophobic me inside one of those balls...

The Palm Beach County Fair is huge and ungainly, noisy and crammed with midway rides. Buuuuuuuut, there's the bunny tent and the dog training competition; there're cows and chickens and homemade jams and jellies and crafts; there are art exhibits from all ages of kids (and grown-ups) and prize veggies, everything you'd expect at a county fair. My brother and I wandered out there, one year, and caught a concert by a local high school jazz band. What an unexpected treat! He also spent an inordinate amount of time talking to the blacksmith fellow, who had his own building. Great fun, even without all those rides...

[nonelvis]

I looked up diorama, and I still don't understand why the Medusa was one, but the hedgehog wasn't.

... because I forgot to point out that the Medusa wasn't one either? (There are more actual dioramas in the Flickr set, including Cerberus and the Boston Celerytics.)