Organizers at the Fryeburg Fair, which opened on Sunday and runs through Oct. 10, were hoping for huge turnouts after the popular fall event had to be canceled in person in 2020: They were not disappointed.
“They were boiling to get in here,” said Rachel Andrews Damon, who does publicity and marketing for the 171-year-old annual fair.
It’s too early to say for sure just how well-attended this year’s fair will be, but on Monday throngs of attendees filled the Fryeburg Fairgrounds, leaving no doubt the annual fair had indeed returned, just as Damon said it had on Sunday.
“The misty rain did not dampen anything here,” Damon said.
The agricultural fair has not only been a fixture in Fryeburg and beyond for well over a century, but in Maine it traditionally marks summer’s last hurrah and the ushering in of fall. On Monday, crowds moved through food vendor booths of all kinds, tried their luck at carnival games, and shrieked on amusement park rides. There were also livestock exhibits, and a full schedule of live music and competitions.
Perhaps most notable among the latter is the Woodsmen’s Field Day, held all day on Monday. Participants took part in everything from sawing wood to throwing axes to rolling logs. It has been a part of the fair for the past 52 years, Damon said, and she called it the largest Woodsmen’s spectator sport in North America.
Last year, Damon said, organizers presented videos of past events online, but were unable to hold a competition in person. This year, she said, about 70 participants took part in the competition, half of what the event usually brings, since many Canadian competitors were unable to travel because of pandemic restrictions.
That didn’t seem to slow this year’s event down. On Monday, crowds packed into the grandstand and gathered along the outdoor arena’s fence to watch the action, punctuated by the buzz of chainsaws and an announcer’s chronicling of the activities through a loudspeaker.
Hanna Severy, 32, of Wales, said she just started competitive axe-throwing this year. Monday marked her first time throwing at the Fryeburg Fair. She said she got 15 out of 25 points, her second best score this season.
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“I did OK, as a rookie,” she said.
Her father, Richard Severy, 64, said he has participated in several of the Woodsmen’s Day’s events starting about five years ago. A retired electrician for Bath Iron Works, he said he understood why events had to be canceled last year, but it felt good to be back this week.
“It’s fun. There’s a lot of great people here,” he said. “We’re like a big family.”
Natasha Kosowsky, 26, of Unity, Maine, a longtime competitor, hacked away at a fixed piece of timber with a heavy axe Monday in the women’s standing block chop.
“This is my favorite event,” she said. “I’ve loved it since college.”
She started in 2013, and has been trying to make it to the fair to compete every year since. Last year, she said, everyone was disappointed that the pandemic prevented in-person competition.
“It put a damper on the whole lumberjack community,” she said.
This year, organizers have scattered hand sanitizing and washing stations throughout the fairgrounds, and encouraged participants to wear masks while indoors and in large crowds. Roy Andrews, the fair’s president, has been involved with the fair, in one way or another, for the past 53 years. He said the pandemic has made the past year the toughest he’s seen yet.
“There’s a lot of people who wanted to come last year,” he said.
But Andrews said he had no doubt at all that the crowds would be back this week. The fair has seen as many as 200,000 paid attendees in the past, and, he said, 2019 featured visitors from all 50 states and 17 different countries. The fair includes 100 buildings spread out over 200 acres, he said. An exact number of fair employees and staff was not available, but Andrews said in 2019 the fair produced 650 W-2s and a total payroll of $1.3 million.
The fair means money for the community, too. A 2016 economic impact study from the University of Maine, Andrews said, showed the fair brings an estimated $21 million into Fryeburg.
“There’s good in a small town of 3,500 people,” he said.
Nonprofits also benefit. Andrews said this year’s fair features 35 different organizations, ranging from churches, recreation departments and groups such as the Rotary Club, all raising money through booths selling mostly fairground food favorites, such as fried dough and corn dogs.
In the crowd, attendees listed reasons for coming ranging from the food to petting animals to watching competitions like the Woodmen’s Day activities. Joe Ksiaskiewicz, 67, used to live in Lisbon Falls, and now lives in East Stroudsburg, Penn.
“We’ve been here several times already,” he said. “There’s a lot of neat stuff to see.”
Local farmers also showed off their livestock. In the fair’s dairy barn, the smell of hay was in the air and a portable stereo was playing country music while cows of all kinds and sizes reclined on straw, while their owners were on hand to talk about them with visitors.
Joe Chute, 28, of Leeds, spent Monday morning tending to his eight cows, including “Cheddar,” a jersey who was almost a year old. As he used an electric trimmer to shave Cheddar, he noted that he has been showing animals at fairs since his youth, but this was the first time he’s been to the Fryeburg Fair since 2010. He said he hopes the cows will show well -- there is a cash prize for the best -- but for him it’s more about the experience than the money.
“I’m just here to be here,” he said.
Eli Skolfield, 2, of Otisfield, had a huge grin on his face as he handed Cheddar some hay to eat.
“He loves cows,” said his father, Seth Skolfield, 29. “We come every year.”
Other children delighted in seeing animals, too. Mike Fisher, 43, of Vassalboro, cradled his daughter, Cora, 2, in his arms as he moved through the barn. He said his whole family has a tradition of coming down to the fair and camping nearby, as an end-of-the-season event.
Cora was shy, but when asked what she did Monday morning, she managed to finally declare, “We saw some moo-moos.”