At the the opening ceremony of the 147th Barron County Fair on Wednesday afternoon, reigning Barron County Fairest of the Fair Elora Repman introduced those vying to be the 2024 Fairest and Junior Fairest.
The two candidates for Fairest are Isabella Lyste, a former member of the Poskin Jets 4-H Club and currently serving a second year as a 4-H summer intern, and Alexis Olson, a former member of the Yellow River Hawks and Golden Bear, neither clubs of which still exist.
The only candidate for Junior Fairest is Cadence Holten, a member of the Country Siders 4-H Club, who shows pigs and other projects at the fair.
Fairgoers are reminded that for the first time the crowning of the new Fairest has been moved from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon with the program to start at 1:30 p.m. at the Tim Heffernon Memorial Stage just west of the Expo Building.
Also at the opening ceremony, Barron County Fair Manager Kevin Roske reported that more than 10,000 entries — which is an all-time high — crashed the software system causing fair secretary Jacque Schaffer to burst into tears, but it got worked out and all is good.
The fair manager said at the last convention of fair boards the question was posed as to what their respective fair could use if money was not an object. Roske said as features were suggested he found himself realizing that the Barron County Fair offers much of what other fairs only dream of.
"In my opinion, the Barron County Fair is the best county fair in the state of Wisconsin," Roske said.
Opening ceremony speaker Keith Kolpack's remarks seemed to back Roske's claim. Kolpack, a retired ag teacher from Barron and longtime hog superintendent of the fair, said he and his brother grew up showing dairy cattle at the Shawano County Fair held over the Labor Day weekend.
He said it was a black-and-white event in his memory. So when he married the Rice Lake ag teacher's daughter Lynn Bergum, settled into a home and teaching career at Barron, and took in the Barron County Fair for the first time, he said, "I couldn't believe the color." Kolpack went on to explain that Barron County's dairy class included not just Holsteins but Guernsey, Jerseys, Brown Swiss, Airshire, even some milking shorthorn.
"It was so diverse," he said.
And diverse not only in dairy, he said, but in all the animal and non-animal classes that his students and later his own kids could enter — hogs, beef, sheep, shooting sports, arts and crafts, agriscience, mechanics and so much more.
The ceremony began with Barron County American Legion Commander Jerry Townsend leading the color guard, who raised the flag, and Kim Barta singing the national anthem.
Fair Board member John Blastowski, who presided, said this year's fair motto is "Come for the Food, Stay for the Memories," and he encouraged everyone to do that.
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