The Howard County Fair sits almost midway between an event that resembles its past and another that could signal its future.
To the north in Westminster, the Carroll County Fair remains an agriculture exposition -- there are no rides and no admission charges. To the south, the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair will hold a stunt car show and a demolition derby as part of its extensive entertainment this September.
The Howard County Fair sprouted from an agrarian community, a place for farmers to show off their crops and livestock. But as the fair prepares to open its gates for the 53rd time on Saturday, its western Howard community seems more crowded with suburban homes and Volvos than farm fields and tractors.
That changing landscape presents a challenge for organizers: How do they keep people coming year after year to an event that seems anachronistic in the age of Disney World and movie mega-plexes?
"This [time] is a turning point in the way the fair has to think," said F. Grant Hill, president of the fair's board of directors. "Howard County is a growing community, a growing area, and the fair reflects that."
The fair, a nonprofit organization, is run by a small board made up of mostly western Howard residents.
About 100,000 people are expected to pay the $3 admission charge during the fair's eight-day run from Aug. 15 to 22. That dwarfs Carroll County's attendance but is only half the attendance of the Montgomery County fair.
Hill, a part-time farmer and full-time dentist, and his predecessor raised the advertising budget from almost nothing to nearly $10,000 to help boost fair attendance. This year, for the second time, he held a media brunch, handing out slick press packets while serving up a smorgasbord of quiche, stuffed tomatoes and fresh fruit.
"We're just being a little more progressive than before," said Hill, who makes a dozen fair-related calls a day and conducts business between patients. The other afternoon, he met with an advertising executive for a radio station, which will air 25 spots during fair week.
Attendance worries
Some fair organizers, like board member Brice Ridgely, worry that attendance has stagnated during the past 10 years. He pushed a recent proposal to build a large grandstand to draw music groups and possibly a rodeo.
