2014 VW County Fair officially ends

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The 158th edition of the Van Wert County Fair is officially over with the closing of the fair Monday evening. Unofficially, though, today is the most important day for Junior Fair livestock exhibitors.

The Junior Fair Livestock Auction will be held today in the Farm Focus Arena. That’s when area businesses and organizations come out to bid for animals shown at this year’s fair. It’s the culmination of a year’s work as livestock exhibitors finally earn a paycheck for months of feeding and caring for their animals.

The auction will begin at 9 a.m. this morning with the auctioning off of a symbolic gallon of milk (dairy cows aren’t auctioned off), and will end sometime this afternoon when the last animal is sold.

Labor Day’s official end to the fair ensured that the fair went out with a bang, as a number of special events were held Monday under warm and dry temperatures.

Thoroughbred horse racing traditionally takes place on Labor Day — the only day of the fair that doesn’t feature harness racing — and this year was no exception, with the 1 1/8 Mile Derby the feature race for the day.

The Open Sheep Show was held in the morning, while the Senior Fair Dairy Show took place on Monday afternoon. In the Junior Fair area, shows included the Swine Show, Junior Fair Horse Fun Show, and the prestigious Showman of Showmen competition, where livestock exhibitors get the chance to show all of the various livestock categories to see who is the best showman.

On the entertainment side of the fair, Naked Karate Girls teamed up with local high school bands to put on a musical show in front of the grandstand Monday night under the new “Build the New Band Show” event first held this year.

Other entertainment included the Trinity Gospel trio and Soul’d Out in the Gospel Pavilion, while the Rock band Broken Lights performed in the Entertainment Tent.

Although hot and humid most of the week, this year’s fair avoided rain, which was noteworthy in itself. Now, with this year’s edition in the can, so to speak, Fair Board members can take a break — for a day or so, anyway — before beginning work on the 159th edition.