Summer months are great, but late September in Lancaster County is something special because it's fair season. After a year where a number of events were canceled or adjusted, it was no surprise that many people were delighted that the West Lampeter Fair returned for its 97th year. The three-day event from Wednesday, Sept. 22, to Friday, Sept. 24, attracted hundreds of attendees. Some came for the food, some came for the tractor and baby parades, some came for the animals, and some came for all of it.
Festivities began at noon on the first day of the fair. Many activities occurred, such as a children's petting zoo, a tractor parade, and the West Lampeter Fair Queen Contest. Formerly known as the Livestock Queen Contest, the West Lampeter Fair Queen Contest has been a tradition since 1958. This year's 10 candidates each represented a club, sport, or extracurricular activity and met individually with the fair queen committee before the contest. This year's West Lampeter Fair queen is Brooke Smith, representing the National Honor Society. Smith and the fair queen alternate, Gracie Albright, representing the FFA, received scholarships and cash prizes for themselves and their sponsoring organizations. Smith will also represent the West Lampeter Community Fair at the PA State Fair Queen Competition in January 2022.
The second day of the fair saw tractor games, the baby parade, and a concert with music provided by the Lampeter-Strasburg High School marching band. On the last day of the fair, there was an all-Western horse show and a calf roping contest, and the winners of the Youth Encouragement Awards were named.
Although there were no indoor sit-down dinners this year, several sports teams, clubs, and organizations brought their A game when it came to the food. Fairgoers feasted on hot dogs, hamburgers, breakfast sandwiches, sausage sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, hamloaf patties, pit beef sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, subs, pizza, walking tacos, soup, fruit, french fries, whoopie pies, funnel cakes, waffles and ice cream, milkshakes, root beer floats, and apple dumplings.
For more information about the West Lampeter Fair, visit http://www.westlampeterfair.com or search for "West Lampeter Fair" on Facebook. To view photos from the fair, visit townlively.com/in-the-community/.
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