Fryeburg Fair 2008

Fryeburg Fair 2008

The Fryeburg Fair held in Fryeburg, Maine (located on the NH border) is Maine's largest fair and one of the most popular. We attended the fair on Monday, 29 September 2008 and it runs until Sunday 5 October 2008. We purposedly attended on a non-weekend day in order to avoid the crowds (because in the past we have had terrible experiences with heavy traffic which has caused us to wait hours to enter or more likely to leave the fairgrounds also the crowds inside the park are quite heavy. Well with it being a rainy weekend and the opening of the fair we were quite naive to think that the fair would not be crowded. The parking at the fairs two main gates which we have parked in the past (on a Saturday) were SOLD OUT. This year the cost is $5. Premium parking is glady offered by neighbors surrounding the fair grounds which offer you a spot to park on their lawns for $5 to $10 (based on proximity to the fair).

Crowds

Even though the parking situation was not ideal. The crowds weren't terrible at the fair (probably a 5 or 6 on a scale of 10). At lunch time you were hard pressed to find any picnic tables for seating but by 2PM there was plenty to go around. There was a long line at Old MacDonald's Petting farm for the young ones but you could pretty much go through all the animal stables and areas without bumping into anyone. Some parts of the fairgrounds near Expo 1 and 2 had some crowds and the ATM was crowded (see below) but other than that it was free-flowing. We literally bounced around from area to area without any problems.

Food

As usual we spent a majority of time and money eating at the fair. My wife had a full-course delicous turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce for $13 which included a drink (this is located near the Agricultural Exhibition center). She was able to share this with our toddler. My son and I each had a delicous sicilian style thick crust pizza for $3.50 each (his cheese mine pepperoni: NOTE garlic and black olive was also available). My daughter opted for a healthy lunch.... she had fried dough ;-> which was an unbelievable $5.00.

For ane early afternoon snack we stopped by the Sugar Shack and got a thing of maple cotton candy for $3.00. This was not the kids favorite and I'm not a big cotton candy fan so a lot of this went to waste. I believe you can try a sample.

For a late afternoon snack the kids shared a very large bowl of delicous fries for $7.00, youngest son wanted a soft serve icecream cone for $3.50 and the wife and I shared a blooming onion for $7.50 (which included extra ranch dip).

To save on money we brought in our own water bottles. Good thing. This was about $2 each for a small water bottle.

Cash

Well the fair had somewhat of its own little "credit crisis" as just about everything requires CASH. Nothing is wired to accept credit/debit cards. And with increasing food prices I was quickly out of cash within 1 hour. My toddler kept reminding me that he was still hungry and with no snacks in our backpack I had to find an ATM. Well the line I found at the ATM you would think it was a hot new ride at Disney or Universal. It took a good 1/2 hour for me to make it through that line. I quickly found out that out of the 4 ATMs they had only 1 was working. The line continued to grow as I moved up in the queue.

Animals

We saw exotic birds, sheep (including a ram), goats, horses, lots of cows, etc. My children was able to ask some of the owners specific questions about their animal they had to research for their homeschool project. After all this was an official field trip.

Overview

One thing about the Fryeburg Fair is that it doesn't change much. Year after year the same vendors return and they are located in the same location. You think they could "shake things up a little" and introduce new vendors or even the old ones in new locations.