Calling all local heroes …
The annual Davis County Fair returns to Farmington next week, and the theme for this year’s fair is “Where Heroes Unite.”
“It came down to what is unique about Davis County,” fair director Dave Hansen explained the process of coming up with a theme. “The idea of heroes is popular these days with all the Marvel (superhero) movies, but especially here in Davis County — with the Air Force base, police, fire and other public servants — they’re all heroes.”
The fair will run 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, Aug. 14-17, at the Legacy Events Center, 151 S. 1100 West, Farmington.
Hansen said there will be plenty of traditional county fair activities at this year’s celebration — including the RMPRA rodeo, the carnival rides, the food vendors, the petting zoo, and the county residents’ entries of animals, produce, crafts, hobbies and more.
“There’s always a core of attractions to the fair, just by its nature,” Hansen said. “But we also always try to bring in new attractions to keep it fresh for everyone.”
Among those new attractions this year are the Superheroes Stunt Show, the Mountain Bike Stunt Show, and the DockDogs diving show.
“The DockDogs were here maybe 10 years ago, but they were a big attraction,” Hansen said. “People are crazy about dogs.”
Also new this year is a hot-air balloon Glow Night, according to Tarryn Aubuchon, the fair coordinator intern.The event will involve five hot-air balloons, some fire-throwing dancers and bounce houses.
“We hope it to be the start of a new tradition at the fair,” Aubuchon said. “It’s definitely been our biggest attraction of social media so far.”
One big change to this year’s fair is the admission price. In past years, the fair was free but there was a charge for parking. This year, Hansen says parking in the North Lot is free but there is now a small admission charge to get in to the fair.
Fair admission is $2 per person, or $5 for a family of five. A multiple-day family pass, good for all four days of the fair, is $10.
Hansen says there is a separate charge for three events at this year’s fair — the rodeo, the 5K and kids one-mile race, and the GENTRI concert. Tickets for these events are available at www.daviscountyutah.gov/fair/tickets.
Aubuchon points out that there will also be plenty of free performances on the fair’s entertainment stage.
“We wanted to reach a bunch of different audiences this year, rather than just picking what we felt we wanted to see,” she said. “We have a lot of genres and acts — there’s a comedian, obviously live music, dance performances, karate shows and all sorts of different things.”
And Aubuchon predicts the “PJ Masks” meet-and-greet on Saturday will be especially popular with the young ones.
“‘PJ Masks’ is the ‘Barney’ of our day,” she said of the animated TV series.
And Hansen reminds county residents that there will again be plenty of food available for purchase at this year’s fair. Plus which, he stresses that a county fair is the one time of the year that you don’t have to justify your eating habits to anyone.
“You can just say, ‘I’m going to eat fair food — eat all this crazy stuff — and not feel guilty about it,’” he said.
Hansen says he invites all to this year’s Davis County Fair, concluding: “The weather will be perfect. The food will be great. Come and spend the whole day.”
