ALLENTOWN, Pa. — How hot was it?
It seemed like Mother Nature was chopping down trees with one hand and lobbing them onto a roaring fire with the other.
It was Oppressive. Smothering. Roasting. Wilting. Draining.
In other words: Uh, yeah, pretty hot.
On this opening night of the 172nd Great Allentown Fair, Mary Ann Terchak of Allentown dabbed a napkin on her sweat-pebbled brow, peeked at the unforgiving sun that cranked up the temps to the mid-90s and offered a shoulder shrug.
“It’s summer,” she said, with her two young grandchildren in tow. “It’s August. It’s hot.
“But it’s the Fair and I wouldn’t miss it even if it was five degrees hotter.”
The forecast is kinder on Thursday, with temperatures expected in the high 70s to low 80s, and the same through Saturday.
As always, the Great Allentown Fair got off to a rousing start of its six-day festival at the Allentown Fairgrounds.
Delicious food. Cold drinks. Treats such as funnel cake, apple dumplings and ice cream. Live music. An assortment of amusement park-type rides and games of chance. Novelty attractions.
"Forget what the calendar says. For me, the Fair is like New Year’s Eve."Doreen Robinson of Allentown
The Fair even offered a Hot Diggity Dog show replete with a 700-pound hog, rescue dogs and — since Wednesday was Hump Day — camels.
Queen of the Fair is crowned
And as is the case with all opening nights at the fair, the Great Allentown Fair queen competition was held.
The winner is Zoie Jones, 17, a senior at Kutztown Area High School.
Jones is involved in wildlife sciences through the FFA program. She received first place for Wildlife Career Development Events and also was on the Envirothon Team, which won first place and went to the state competition, and on which she received third place for public speaking.
Zoie has won the Small Animal Manager Award, Greenhand Degree, Chapter Scholarship Award, Chapter Leadership Award, Chapter Degree and Creed Speaking Contest.
She plans to major in wildlife biology in college.
The Allentown Fair Queen is a yearly scholarship program which promotes community, leadership and agriculture to the surrounding Allentown area (Lehigh, Northampton and Berks counties).
Each year, the winner receives a $1,500 scholarship for higher education.
Much like Terchak, attendees dealt with the heat as best they could. Refreshments were the order of the day as folks traversed portions of the 46-acre fairgrounds, some drinking fresh-squeezed lemonade as they squeezed out every last drop of summer.
“Forget what the calendar says,” Doreen Robinson of Allentown said. “For me, the Fair is like New Year’s Eve.
"It’s a time to celebrate not the end of the year, but the end of summer in a big, big way. It’s like a final blowout before Fall.”
Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony was held at the Astound Broadband Farmerama Theater.
Daryl G. Urmy is president of the Lehigh County Agricultural Society, the nonprofit which operates the fair for the benefit of agriculture throughout the Lehigh Valley.
A fifth-generation farmer, Urmy looked both backward and forward on the opening ceremony stage. He noted the Fair’s history stretches from the days of the horse and buggy to the automobile.
But he also revealed that Fair organizers have not only begun to plan next year’s event, but it’s 175th in 2027.
Urmy encouraged those in attendance to “take the sights and smells of the country fair home with you tonight.”
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Great American Fair Queen Program.
During opening ceremonies, David Bausch, 93, a former Lehigh County Executive and longtime executive board member of the Fair, was presented a certificate by the State Department of Agriculture for his long and distinguished commitment to the Fair.
Rides of all kinds
The Fair once again offered amusement park-type rides, from a Ferris wheel, to carousels, to spinning cups, to children enjoying riding live horses in a circle.
“The Fair lets my child ride a horse without worrying if it's going to run off with her,” said Veronica Williams of Easton. “It’s safe and it's fun.”
The Fair runs through Monday, Sept. 2. Among the featured attractions on Thursday are Robinson’s Pig Paddling Porkers races, Flippenout trampoline show, food and baking contests at the Agri-Plex and animal show contests.
A special award will be presented on Thursday to U.S. Navy (Ret.) Commander Charles R. Sherer as the Fair’s Hometown Hero. Sherer is an Allentown native who resides in New Tripoli.
Also Thursday, all active military and veterans with an ID will have free admission to the fair on Kistler O'Brien's "Red, White and Thank You" Military Appreciation Day.
For information on the Great Allentown Fair, go to www.AllentownFair.com
