Overton Fair Kicks Off 85th Year With Pageants

The Overton County Fair kicks off its 85th year of celebration and agriculture with pageants Thursday night.

Fair Secretary Bob Matthews said there are different events scheduled for each day including livestock shows, motorcycle races, and a truck and tractor pull. Matthews said the fair gives everyone from gardeners, to young children, 4-H students, or professional farmers a platform.

“Our cattle shows people, gives people the opportunity to show their cattle, their prized hogs, horse shows give people an opportunity to compete against each other,” Matthews said. “It’s just important to keep agriculture on everybody’s mind. Agriculture is a very important thing in this area. Need to promote it as much as we possibly can.”

Matthews said they will also have a number of food vendors and exhibits, plus the James Gang Carnival arriving at the fair Monday. Matthews said their exhibits will have several themes including flowers, garden crops, and tractors.

“We’ll have demonstrations going on,” Matthews said. “We have cast iron cooking on Wednesday night of next week.”

Matthews said they have completed a few improvements to the fairgrounds to make the event even better than last year’s fair.

“Each year we try to make it bigger and better than what it was the year before,” Matthews said. “We’re hoping to have a good crowd out this year.”

Matthews said they will also be having special events for children and seniors, with Senior Day on Wednesday and the Kids Extravaganza on the last Saturday of the fair.

“I hope that it will have a big impact on everyone,” Matthews said. “I hope that it will draw interest to the fair, draw interest to Overton County, make people more aware of Overton County,” Matthews said.

He said the main event of each day usually starts between 5:00pm and 6:00pm and can go as late as midnight.