Aside from some bleating goats and snorting camels, the Westmoreland Fairgrounds were relatively quiet on a sun-drenched afternoon early this week.
That will change Friday when the 70th edition of the Westmoreland Fair gets underway at the fairgrounds on Blue Ribbon Lane in Mt. Pleasant Township. Attendance at the annual fair has surpassed 60,000 in recent years.
“We have about 10,000 competitive entries (and) about 900 exhibitors ranging from 6 months old to 97 years old,” said Joann Logan, who’s joined by fellow volunteer Shirley Keller in organizing and entering data for judged competitions in the fair’s wide variety of categories.
Logan and Keller can share fair stories of romantic drama among teens, goats eating the prize ribbons and stiff competition among bakers of angel food cake, apple pie and chocolate cake — winners in those dessert categories earn a spot at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
There is perhaps a little less competition among vendors at the fair.
Jaybird Boutique Co., owner Karley Lydig of Rockwood, is in her fourth year as a fair vendor, selling custom designs printed onto T-shirts, home decor, glassware and other items. She said her favorite part of coming to the Westmoreland Fair has less to do with sales, and more with seeing how much fun her daughter has.
“She loves the animals, the rides and definitely the funnel cakes,” Lydig said.
A few out buildings away, the smell of bleach hung in the air as Vaughn Hamrock and other members of Courtyard Concessions were scrubbing their kitchen in preparation for the fair’s opening day.
“I really like that they keep the gate fair, and the whole thing is family-friendly,” said Hamrock, a Scottdale resident who is the second generation of his family to operate the Courtyard food booth. They’ve been coming to the fair since 1989.
Both Hamrock and Lydig were vendors at last month’s Fayette County Fair.
“At Fayette, the gate is $20 a person,” Hamrock said. “With that as the ticket price, if you’re coming with a family you can pretty much know you’ll be kissing $500 goodbye by the end of the night.”
For Logan and Keller, the past two weeks since the Aug. 1 competition entry deadline have been crunch time.
“The big challenge is to have all the entries in the computer so you can easily look people up and get them registered when they all arrive,” Keller said.
As part of this year’s 70th anniversary, fair organizers created a special design which will be sold on commemorative fair T-shirts.
While she hasn’t been around for the fair’s entire run, Logan said she loves seeing familiar faces.
“It’s wonderful watching children grow up and continue participating and entering the competition once they become adults,” she said.
The Westmoreland Fair will run from Friday through Aug. 24 at 123 Blue Ribbon Lane in Mt. Pleasant Township. For a full schedule of events and more information, see WestmorelandFair.com.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.