County Fair Season in Nashville
It is here! It is here! The greater Nashville County Fair season starts in the first week of August. Williamson County leads with its 9 day fair that spans over two weekends. The Wilson County Fair, which is now combined with the Tennessee State Fair, is a 10 day fair that spans the next two weekends. The new kid on the block is the Nashville Fair which will take place one weekend in early September. If that is not sufficient down home excitement, the two day East Nashville Tomato Festival is also an August tradition.
State fairs draw me like a magnet. 2019 was a peak year for that experience, I had been traveling internationally a lot. Since, for the most part, I only took street photography when I was traveling, the experience at the fairs was a complete revelation. Something was going on in Nashville that I could actually photograph. The fairs attract a large number of visitors. As an example, the fair I attended this week had almost 35,000 people visit on Friday night. That reasonably big concentration of people is a requirement for me to be brave enough to take street photography.
I break down the fair experience into five different categories:
There are the amusement park rides. I don’t want to seem competitive, but my county fair, the Wilson County Fair has it all over the Williamson County Fair. Each year, Reithoffer Shows sets up an absolutely amazing amusement park for Wilson County. It is so beautiful that I have a hard time leaving the area.
The Fairs gave me some opportunity to do a little experimental photography.
There is a parade, at least in Wilson County. Who does not love high school bands and tractors?
There are all manner of visual art and agricultural product competitions. I have to give Williamson County the proverbial Best in Show in this category. I could never figure out how to enter the Wilson County photography competition. I am not eligible for the Williamson County competition. It is such fun to look at the winning photographs, often taken by photographers I know or I know of. I perused the art, quilting, flower, plant and food competitions at both fairs. In Wilson County, I tried to guess which was the best bale of hay. No one is ever going to ask me to judge that.
This was taken before the Parade of Dolls. I had no idea what to expect. The dolls were toddlers dressed to the hilt.
There is fair food. Oh my, it is expensive. A sausage on a stick and a Coke is $14.00. The vending trailers are a visual treat for the eye. It just real nice to see people having fun with food.
There are livestock competitions. I lived on the U.S. Naval Academy Dairy Farm for three years as a young teenager. I know cows. And one goat. Well, two. I was the one who kept the Associated Press up to date on the impending death of Bill the Goat XV, the Naval Academy mascot. They would call my home. I would jump on my bicycle to go see if Bill was still alive in his pen and then return home to report. I am pretty sure I was the first person to pronounce him dead. In any case, there is something beyond thrilling for me to watch middle schoolers show their goat or their cow. I can take a shocking number of pictures. I enjoy looking at those pictures. Do you think this is street photography?
It is not all that easy to get anything close to a good composition. I did not care. I just snapped away doing the best I could.
In the case of Wilson County, it is close enough that I can go back multiple times, even though the traffic is terrible. That helps me a lot, although I probably take the best photos the first day. I have been to the Wilson County Fair three times now. I think I will probably retire for the year.