May the fair run dry: The Wayne County Regional Agricultural Fair is scheduled to run Sept. 28 through Oct. 7, weather permitting
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 14, 2017 8:53 AM
Full Size
File photo
Kids practice showing their goats before competition at last year's Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair.
Full Size
File photo
Full Size
File photo
People walk through an area of the midway lined with various fair food options on opening night of last year's Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair.
DUDLEY -- Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair Manager Eddie Pitzer is looking for some guarantees on the weather.
"If you can help me, I will be glad to take you up," he said. "We plan for the best and do everything, but the weather is the weather. Two years ago we lost five out of 10 days (because of heavy rains), and last year we lost three out of 10 days (because of Hurricane Matthew).
"Whatever the weather is, we will work through it."
Even without that guarantee the 69th annual Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair, owned and operated by the Wayne County Livestock Development Association, will be held Sept. 28 through Oct. 7 at the fairgrounds on U.S. 117 South.
The hours will be 4 to 9 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 8 p.m. Sunday. Tuesday, Oct. 3, is Senior Citizens Day with free admission for anyone 60 or older.
Weather isn't the only thing on Pitzer's mind -- so is the recent tragedy at the Ohio State Fair where one person died and several others were injured when a ride broke.
The ride involved in the Ohio accident, the Fireball, is an older ride, close to 18 years old, Pitzer said.
Pitzer said he has heard a lot of discussion about the accident and that many people have asked if that particular ride will be at the fair.
It will not, and most of the rides that will be here are fairly new ones, he said.
"I feel confident those rides will be safe," he said. "They will be inspected. With an incident like this the Department of Labor, the industry, all of them are really going to be watching."
Powers Great American Midway has provided the carnival rides at the fair since 2000.
The N.C. Department of Labor has one of the most stringent inspections that there are, and Powers also has one of the better safety programs, he said.
"One of our top priorities is safety," he said. "Powers has one of the highest safety records in the industry. One of the reasons that he does is he keeps fairly new equipment."
Close to 50 rides are expected on the midway, Pitzer said.
"This year alone he has six new pieces of equipment coming in," Pitzer said. "Once it gets to a certain age he trades it in and buys new equipment.
"As you know the impact of this (accident) is far reaching. So he tries to do what he can to protect the industry. Of course we want to have as safe an event as we can have for the people who are coming."
General admission tickets are $7 for adults and $4 for ages 12 and younger.
Carnival ride wristbands are $25 weekdays and $30 for Saturday and Sunday.
Discount wristband are available online at waynefair.com or at a local Walgreens for $20 for weekdays and $25 for the weekend.
Early-bird registration will be offered again this year in an effort to encourage people to submit exhibits, Pitzer said.
"We try to encourage and make it a little more convenient for them so we do the Saturday before the fair," he said. "That will be Saturday, Sept. 23. That is for entries, not for animals. That is 1 to 4 p.m."
Fair catalogs are available and can be picked up at the fair office or viewed online at waynefair.com.
For more information, call 919-735-7277.