In Which We Find.. The Fair

In honor of Eye Candy Friday.. I offer you some photos of the fair.

The Eastern States Exposition is an amazing experience. It's held in Springfield MA, and the fairground is different than anything else I've ever seen. It's like a small village. Part of the fairgrounds is a road, and on one side of the road is the Avenue of States (MA, NH, CT, VT, ME and RI each have a building) and on the other side, is a lil green way, a beer garden and all these old historical houses that now are gift shops and museums and what not.


And on the lawns and in the green ways artisan's set up. We got to the fair wayyyyyyyyy early. You need to have all vehicles off the grounds and into the parking area by 9:00 am.. so we had to head down early to unpack the drums. So before we played (at 10am when the fair opened) we browsed the NH building (vendors/exhibitors got in early) and I walked around and took in the sights of the historical section. We played in front of the NH building (shown in the photo) on a stage. And right after we played, a music group from my High School showed up with the band director that was there when I was (and I graduated some 14 years ago). I thought that was so cool. Congrats to the LHS Symphonic band for being at the Big E!

I found this gem of an old stone house, amongst a few taverns, a one room school house and a church. I love old historical buildings and thought this one was just so cool looking. After we played and packed up, it was 11:30 and the fair was mobbed! I never made it back over to this section and I was glad I had viewed it early this morning. We stayed until almost 3pm, (my lil car-load that I went with) and you really could stay 3 or 4 more hours to get in all there was to see.. and that was if you didn't go on the Midway. It's just that huge.


They had a guy who sculpted with butter, a giant International building with all sorts of cool stuff from all over the world, all sorts of fair food and games.. and then of course there was the agriculture. Cows, sheep, horses. You name it. We didn't go into the other animal building.. but I bet they had chickens and all that sort of stuff too. Inside the cow/sheep building there were sheep getting shorn. Lots of sheep. Lots of bags of fleece. A fiber tent that sold hand knit items... and manufactured yarn. WTF? You would think, with all those farms, and all those sheep.. there would be loads of local spun yarn. No luck. I was even going to plunk down some $$ for some. They did have a guy there using a drum carder that had a sign about what the machine was and what he was using it for. I was hopeful. I looked.. but no luck. My friend bought a "hand knit" sweater made out of 100% wool for $35.00. It was knit in Cambodia.. and I don't know if it was machine knit or hand knit by 5 year olds that should be in school.. but it was in the international building and it looked good on her. I just couldn't. All in all it was a good time. And they are already talking about us going back next year.