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Almost every county in the state hosts an agricultural fair with whirring rides, fast-talking game barkers and greasy food. Here, rich and poor, rural and citified, young and old mingle in a way that is rarely seen elsewhere.
Photographer Daria Bishop spent last summer going to the state’s many fairs to capture this longtime Vermont tradition. She found compelling behind-the-scenes tales, memorable faces and stories of love. http://vermontlife.com/pdf/su09-tickettoride.pdf
Photo by Daria Bishop Every fair, like every Vermont community, has its own traditions. For the Deerfield Valley Farmers’ Day Fair, the tradition is pie eating. Travis Bolte of Readsboro is the defending champion. At this sitting (pictured), he ate 14 ounces of pie — not quite as good as last year. “There was a tiebreaker,” he says. “So they scooped pie off the ground, and I had to eat it again.”
Other traditions are easy to find at the fair. For instance, family matriarch Lynn Dupuis honors her son Micah by participating in the Jack and Jill sawing competition each year. Micah passed away when he was 19 in a logging accident. Last year, she and her son Aaron took first place.
To see more of Daria Bishop’s captivating photos of Vermont fairs, see “Ticket to Ride,” a photo essay in the Summer issue of Vermont Life. Click here for a slide show of even more fair photos.
See a listing of Vermont's fairs or find more events on the Vermont Travel Planner. |
