For many years, every August I would take a mental health day and attend the Kentucky State Fair. When I told people where I was going, I got one of two reactions: 1) Oh, I would love to do that, I haven’t been to the fair for years or 2) Why in the world would you do that? I told them that it was a way for me to get a day to myself to do things at my own pace and to take in things that I enjoy. In addition to the personal benefits to my mental wellness, I also saw the state fair as a cultural touch point of sorts that affords one the opportunity to see the intersection of cultures that is not seen in many other settings.
Where else can you see/do all the following at one place: a man juggling fiery knives, dogs jumping off trampolines into water, baby chicks hatching, prize winning tobacco twists, parents with children on leashes, the infamous Krispy Kreme burger, a food stand that sells both gyros and nachos, the world’s greatest ugly lamp display, a Christmas tree dedicated to Neil Diamond, people asleep at the wheel of their scooters, iron skillet chef competition, an entire case full of red velvet cakes, free massages, free chiropractic consultations, free skin cancer screenings, walk through a larger than life reproduction of the colon, give blood, get a prostate or breast exam (although now that I think about it, why didn’t he have a booth and handouts like everyone else), simulate driving drunk with the state police, underwater scenes made entirely out of balloons, watch a preacher witness to the guys at the atheist booth, a ShamWow demonstration, a pre-school teacher with 20 students in tow, look up the state rolls to see if you have unclaimed property, watch a jury trial acted out by actors, dodge cow piles while walking through the barns, listen to undiscovered bands, overpay for washed up bands who are or the summer reunion circuit, buy knock off cell phone accessories, caps, or purses, drive a tricycle through Kids Town, grown men in bib overalls playing ps3 games in the demo tent, grannies in spandex, toddlers wearing x-rated t-shirts, an infant wearing only a diaper with Mt. Dew in his bottle, preschoolers cursing, participate in a live radio show in which you try to stump the horticulturalist, watch the epic battle between Pork Producers and Cattlemen’s Association for the appetites of the masses, a quilt made out of women’s underwear, a psychedelic 3D quilt, a $1.6 million country ham, a brochure on every festival in the state (my favorites are Holler in the Holler, Burgoo Festival, and Spoonbread Festival), a World Championship Horse Show competition with only four entries, people booing cows in the show ring, and poor saps who have to keep all the animal poop scooped up.
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