The Morgan County Fair offers lots of family fun
The seventh annual Morgan County Fair is back with lots of family fun the weekend of August 4 and 5. The county fair is scheduled from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 4 and from 12 noon until 6 p.m. on Sunday, August 5 at Berkeley Springs High School. There is no admission fee for the fair.
The Morgan County Fair moves to Widmyer Elementary Saturday evening, August 4, for a pre-fireworks show with Lunar Stew and Sam Cubbage and the All-Nighters that begins at 7 p.m. Fireworks will follow at 9 p.m. Rain date for the Widmyer Elementary fireworks show is Sunday, August 5.
The Martinsburg Roundhouse Trolley will take fairgoers from the parking area at Widmyer Elementary to the high school fairgrounds as it has in past years.
Fair activities
The fair opens in Berkeley Springs on Saturday, August 4 with the Morgan County Health Fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the high school gymnasium. A flag ceremony is set for 12 noon. The 4-H organization will be honored this year at the fair. 4-H members will raise the fair flag and the 4-H flag at the ceremony.
Morgan County 4-H is sponsoring both shooting sports and line dancing this year as well as watermelon eating and ice cream eating contests and the annual 4-H cake auction fundraiser.
The Berkeley Springs Volunteer Fire Department will be onsite with their smoke trailer. The WVU Jackson's Mill History Wagon will be at the fair on Saturday.
The Humane Society of Morgan County will again hold an adoption clinic and the Morgan Arts Council will sponsor Paint Morgan County. The Master Gardeners will have demonstrations in their Garden Room.
The Division of Natural Resources will offer a presentation on firearm safety. Cacapon State Park naturalist Kelly Smith and her black rat snake Onyx will be at the fair.
The Delectable Mountain Quilt Guild will be making a new quilt this year and will hold ongoing quilting demonstrations. They will also auction the quilt they made at the fair last year.
Kids Day activities and games will be sponsored on Sunday by 4-H, Starting Points and the Boys and Girls Club.
Other activities
Other fair events and activities include the Farm Olympics, the People's Dog Show, a Civil War encampment with demonstrations, a tree planting ceremony, antique cars and tractors and the Kids Pedal Pull contest. Animals at the fair will include miniature ponies, llamas, rabbits and a horse.
Other fair entertainment includes David LaFleur, the Teal Steel percussion band, Mike Colyer and the Tone Hounds, the Sanders Sisters, the Stevens Family, Joe Santoro and the Wonderment Puppets. Jonathan McBee, High Frequency and several local youth bands will perform outdoors Sunday afternoon.
A variety of food vendors and community organizations will also have booths at the fair. The Berkeley Springs High School Boosters will hold a spaghetti dinner. Starting Points is offering breakfasts and lunches.
New this year
The West Virginia University forestry department will have a portable sawmill demonstration at the fair, said fair organizer Larry Lower. Boy scouts from Troop 12 will also have a campsite on display. One new exhibit is the decorated vegetable or fruit contest.
Music at the Morgan County Fair has been expanded into a music festival that includes pre-fair events in Paw Paw and Pleasant View. Local performers and bands are being showcased as a part of Morgan County to celebrate, said Lower. Regional acts are also featured. Celebrating Morgan County is the theme of the fair.
Big Band Ball
A new music event is the Big Band Ball at the Country Inn scheduled for Saturday, July 28 from 8-11 pm. It will feature 1940s big band and swing classics from the Tri-State Big Band and vintage rock and roll and country from the Flashbacks. Lower hoped the Big Band Ball will recreate the days of the '40s, '50s and '60s.
Advance tickets for the dance are available at the Morgan County Extension Office and at the Country Inn and from Fair Board members. Tickets are also on sale at the door. Net proceeds from the Big Band Ball will benefit the fair.
Other presentations, exhibits
The Morgan County Forum for Arts Science and Technology (FAST) will have FAST film clips at the county fair that show "how art, science and technology blend into ideas and events in our daily lives," said FAST organizer Bill Lands.
The FAST hands-on room will be a two-day museum of light waves, sound waves and wireless waves exhibits. Another room will display the winning exhibits from the FAST Fair Exhibit Contest.
The Morgan County Partnership will host a live WDHC broadcast of the "Ask the Experts" program on "What to Encourage Your Kids To Get Involved In
