With the 161st iteration of the Shawville Fair fast approaching, volunteers and members of the Fair Board are gearing up to prepare for the hordes of people that will inundate our little town.
THE EQUITY caught up with President Sara Knox to discuss fairs gone by and how things are shaping up this year.
The fair was based in the celebration of agriculture and the board still strives to make that a focal point, especially for folks that might not have exposure to life on a farm.

“It used to be that everyone had grandparents or a relative or someone that lived on a farm,” Knox said. “They would go and see how things worked. People are losing that. We are trying to educate people as much as we can about how important it is to understand agriculture and support it.”
Knox grew up on a beef farm raising Herefords and got involved in the fair showing cattle as a young lass through 4H.
“My parents were both in 4H and were involved in the fair too,” she said. “Growing up on the farm you don’t always get your typical summer vacation but we would go to a lot of fairs, especially when we were showing cattle. We spent our weekends at fairs and Shawville Fair was always a big deal. We spent a lot of time there and it was always a lot of fun.”
She took some time off from showing as she got older, but said that it always felt like something was missing, so in 2009 she joined the fair board. She started as a co-director of the beef division alongside Rick Younge but has branched out in recent years, handling everything from the website to security.
“[The security company] does their job well, you just have to be around if they have any questions or there’s a situation to be dealt with,” she explained.
“I try to not get too violent,” she added with a laugh.
Six years ago she was nominated to vice-president and after a year in that position, she made the leap to president.
“When I joined the fair board that was never my goal, to be president. I just wanted to help out because I spent time at the fair and really liked it,” she admitted. “Some people encouraged me and said I should give it a try. So five years later I’m still giving it a try.”
She said that the week leading up to the fair is a hectic one, with lots of moving parts and people working all over the fairgrounds.
“The weekend before the fair is usually when the tents are delivered and set up,” she said. “Little by little the midway trickles in. The guys that take care of the concessions have everyone’s spots marked out because some of them come directly from other fairs so they could come in the middle of the night.”
“We do a lot of setup for gates and controlling areas, especially around the livestock,” she continued. “It’s a lot of physical work and then there’s the paperwork that’s involved. All the entries have to be processed for when everyone arrives.”
She compared the set up to a village coming together.
“It seems to come down a lot quicker than it goes up,” she added.
During the fair, her job entails a lot of long hours and coordinating with a pool of about 300 volunteers.
“I try to be at the fairgrounds no later than 8 a.m. and sometimes I don’t go home till 3:30 a.m.,” she said. “When I was involved with the security I was there till the very end, when they’d clear the fairgrounds.”
Despite all the hard work, she said it’s all worth it when she sees how people are enjoying themselves.
“Seeing someone come to the fair and getting to pet their first cow or go on their first pony ride. Just sharing in that excitement,” she said. “Being so involved with it, we take it for granted I guess.”