State and county fairs - www.coloradostatefair.com, www.arapahoecountyfair.com, www.douglas.co.us/eventscenter, www.elpasocountyfair.com - Cost: $5-$10 (all-day rides included in some cases)
In this age of multicultural festivals and outdoor
concert series, the traditional state and
county fair has become something of an
anachronism. Is the younger set bides its time
with iPods and downloaded movies, the
prospect of fresh-squeezed lemonade, pony
rides and mutton bustin’seems as quaint as a
Norman Rockwell print.
But don’t send these rites of summer down
the tunnels of time just yet.
The fairs are generally inexpensive and have
plenty to entertain younger kids, even those
without the slightest interest in 4-H agricultural
programs.
The Arapahoe County Fair, for one, is expanding
the midway at its new fairgrounds in rural
Aurora.
Kids are kids in any era
when it comes to funhouses
and bumper cars – and
what the attractions
lack in modern flash
seems to fade when
a child straps an
all-day pass on his
wrist.
Meanwhile, live music
and a beer garden will keep
adults busy as they relish a foot-long and the
fact that their kids are being entertained all day
for the price of a movie ticket.
While fairs still maintain perennial petting
zoos, grocery games and watermelon seedspitting
contests, they also boast make-yourown
CD recording studios, roving buskers, face
painters and other offerings more
associated with urban festivals –
but with sawdust on the
ground
and a
distinct smell of livestock in the air. The El Paso
County Fair has even put the bite back in animal
attractions with a live shark encounter.
The goings-on are at a grander scale at
Pueblo’s 2007 Colorado State Fair, which boasts
bungee-jumping, a spinning-car roller coaster
and concerts by Peter Frampton, the Doobie
Brothers and Weird Al Yankovic – plus the more
traditional Great American Duck Race, a toddler
driving school and the Paul Bunyan
Lumberjack Show.
Then, there is Dance Heads,
a meeting of karaoke and
special effects, in which a
“singer”stars in computergenerated
choreography,
and the Crash the Backlot Tour,
where kids try green-screen animation,
X-box gaming and
voiceover production.
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