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Field Days 2007... Vermont’s Premiere Ag Event Continues To Evolve Successfully

photo by Mike Cameron

Tuesday July 17, 2007

By Mike Cameron

    Addison County Fair and Field Days is scheduled this year for August 7th through August 11th.

    It won’t be long before we see the familiar signs on hay wagons along the Counties major routes that lead to the fairgrounds.

    Field Days is always a welcome event and represents a mid-point in our summer season.  

    Farmers who have been busy with the year’s first cuts of hay and forage will get a get an ever so small break in their schedules to attend.

    Begun in 1948, three years after the end of World War Two, Field Days is a terrific showcase and features a little bit of something for everyone all wrapped around agriculture and the counties agricultural life style.

    History is always a part of this event and it is one that you should mark as a “must attend” on your families summer calender.

    This the year is number 59 for Addison County Fair and Field Days. The event continues to grow and prosper as a non-profit, family oriented, community tradition.

    Russ Carpenter, Field Days Association President spoke with the Voice recently about some new construction and improvements that are slated to be ready for this year’s event.

    “Converting the restrooms to flushing toilets will be a noticeable improvement,” Carpenter explained.  This comes after years of unsatisfactory public sentiment associated with the old composting toilets that were state approved but not very popular with Field Day’s patrons.

    The new flush toilets will also be  featured in the two new constructed, handicapped accessible rooms complete with showers and baby changing facilities.

    A new building will also welcome the ever growing horse venue with more stall space and beef cattlemen and women will find more stall space in the same area thus relieving some of the congestion at the east end of the fair grounds.  

    Carpenter was quick to mention the hard work an dedication of Bill Roleau who has been responsible for the construction of over a dozen Field Days Buildings over the years.

    Field Days week is an exciting time for the entire county and the rich history of this event has drawn attention from all over New England and beyond.  Still, it remains a hometown show and that seems to be its appeal to both young and old.  The 4-H youth with a spanking clean and precisely groomed calf, the lady across the road who always seems to bake the best strawberry rhubarb pie imaginable, that handsome team of oxen, the view from the top of the ferris wheel, your family and your friends with some fried dough and maple syrup, and that’s just the beginning.  Heck, the demolition derby is a study in itself and draws giant crowds every year, year after year.

    Field Days is always an event to look forward to and continues to make the list of Top Ten Summer Events posted by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.

    The vendors and exhibitors are top quality.  Field Day’s patrons will also have a chance to win one of two new bicycles from The Bike Center of Middlebury. At a time when “going green” is sweeping the land, these new bikes, one mountain and one hybred will make a popular prize indeed. Register to win at Field Days Little General Store run by the families of St. Mary’s School, located at Site #26 on the map. No purchase is necessary. Addison County Fair and Field Days is close on the horizon and by all appearances it should continue be a local happening for many, many years to come.

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