100 Things to see at the Fair part 5

I had a unique opportunity at the 2008 Tennessee State Fair in Nashville, TN. There's so much going on all the time that you can't see everything in just one day. I was able to go multiple days with a pass to get into all of the events. It was difficult to narrow everything down to just 100 pictures. I have divided the photos into groups of 20 so that one blog post isn't too long. Like usual, click on any picture to enlarge.

100 Things to see at the fair #81: Bull judging



When the bulls, and most other animals are judged, the owner leads the bull around the arena. I believe in this contest, the humans were 18 and under.

100 Things to see at the fair #82: Cornucopia



Mixing art with agriculture is the cornucopia contest. The purpose is to design vegetables in some container (usually baskets) and often featuring sunflowers.

100 Things to see at the fair #83: Tropical Illusions



Tropical Illusions is a magic show designed for children of all ages. A volunteer from the audience has been asked to retrieve an animal out of the vase because the host is too afraid to. What's in the vase? Is it a cobra?

100 Things to see at the fair #84: Catfish



Funny Dummy the Ventriloquist had three dummies brought out, and this was the middle one. The hayseed boy is named catfish.

100 Things to see at the fair #85: Monster Truck show



To many people, this is what they came to see, the Monster Trucks. "Bad News Travels Fast." When the show starts off, they race. After they race, each truck is given an opportunity to freestyle, where they run over demolished cars and get their front wheel high in the air.

100 Things to see at the fair #86: Petting Zoo goats



100 Things to see at the fair #87: Magic



In this Tropical Illusions trick, the wife of the host gets in the box and then he puts 5 swords through the box. I hope she turns out o.k.

100 Things to see at the fair #88: Fashion design contest



Another contest in the creative arts building is Dressmaking, as well as fashion design for other types of clothing.

100 Things to see at the fair #89: Krystal Trophy



This is what the Krystal Square-off qualifier Championship Trophy looks like. The winner of this trophy, got to go to Chattanooga for a chance at what I presume is a bigger trophy. To win this, all you had to do was eat 60+ krystals in 8 minutes without cheating too much.

100 Things to see at the fair #90: Stunt Bike



This was part of the Keith King BMX stunt show

100 Things to see at the fair #91: all kinds of goats



100 Things to see at the fair #92: Cloggers



The Southern Country Cloggers spent an hour clogging at the Purity Stage. If you are not familiar with Clogging, it's a type of folk dancing popular in the south. The cloggers wear a special shoe that makes tapping the floor more prominent. There are several Clogging groups in the region and the performers are in all skill ranges, from novice to expert.

100 Things to see at the fair #93: Country Ham demonstration



This was a demonstration and Q&A session on ways to prepare county ham in the Agriculture Bldg. Ham is so salty it doesn't need to be refrigerated. If you look through the door, it's a meat closet.

100 Things to see at the fair #94: Graceful horses



During the "All the Kings Horses" show, each horse had different skills. This one could walk sideways.

100 Things to see at the fair #95 Sheep building



100 Things to see at the fair #96: Talent Show



Children of all ages could participate in the "Fairest of the Fair" Talent show. Unless I'm mistaken, I think this girl did a Shirley Temple routine

On an odd note, I knew one of the judges. I was so trying to get a good shot and she was so in to judging accurately that we didn't notice each other despite being 5 feet apart at times.

100 Things to see at the fair #97: Cake design contest



An elegant wedding cake was the winner, but this was my favorite based on sheer cuteness factor.

100 Things to see at the fair #98: Krystal Square-off Winner




One approach to take when describing this picture is inspirational: Even a diminutive woman can win in the male dominated sport of competitive eating, just as Juliet Lee did here at the Nashville Qualifying round of the 2008 Krystal Square-Off. As she holds up her trophy she smiles for the camera, which is ESPN.

However the real story here is she was declared the winner after controversy. I documented the story as the caption of my photo of her eating here:
flickr.com/photos/brent_nashville/2925735717/
Essentially, she started as a crowd favorite because a petite woman was competing with the big boys, but her eating was half of the burger not reaching her mouth. Look at the grease-soaked shirt!

Hello to anyone who found this photo on EatFeats.com
eatfeats.com/link-buffet-november-9-2008.html

100 Things to see at the fair #99: Midway slide



Here's something on the midway that parents and children can enjoy together. You get a potato sack and climb the stairs to the top of the slide.

100 Things to see at the fair #100: Randall's Racing Pigs



An advantage to spending 4 full days at the fair like I did is that you can see certain events at non-peak times. Every time I'd seen the pig races in the past, there was a huge crowd, but on this day, I was able to get right where I wanted to be.

Unfortunately, right where I wanted to be was the wrong place because for the first time that I had seen, Randall made the track clockwise, whereas I was expecting it to be counterclockwise. I got some great shots of pig butts as they ran away from me. Lucky for me, with only 50 people in attendance, I could easily make it to the other side and setup for the shot I wanted the first time on the second race.