By THOMAS P. WEAVER

HORIZON Editor

CELINA-The 2024 Clay County Fair kicked off fair season here in the Upper Cumberland earlier this month, and organizers have deemed the largest local community event of the year as another success.

“We think it is probably the second-most successful in recent history,” fair board president Carla Rich said, referring to a couple of years ago as the best, when traffic backed up across the Cumberland River Bridge into the courthouse square trying to access the event.  “We’ve heard lots of good comments about it this year, and we are thankful for that.”

She said people have offered compliments on this year’s fair, along with suggestions about what to add in the future.

“We welcome those comments, because we love to have input from the community on what they would like to have at the fair,” Rich said.

Evident by a single-night attendance record being broken with their best-ever Tuesday night, the volunteer fair board’s efforts paid off.

“We want to thank the entire fair board for their hard work,” Rich said.  “We absolutely couldn’t do it without all of the volunteers doing their part.”

She also explained more volunteers would be welcomed to help with the effort each year.

“We are constantly looking for more people to jump in and help,” Rich said on behalf of the board.  “So, if anybody is interested, we would love to hear from them.”

Besides offering all the staples of the county fair—midway rides, livestock shows, arena events, and more, the group followed their “A Groovy Kind of Fun” theme by hosting a hippie outfit contest, tie-dying demonstrations, and other themed happenings.

“We had so much fun aligning things with our theme this year,” Rich said, “and we can’t wait to do the same with whatever theme we have next year.”

The fair also continued to use their platform to help the community, by organizing a Team Evan night, where funds were raised to help the family of Evan Hayes, who continues his battle with leukemia.

Rich traveled to visit Hayes following the conclusion of the fair.

“He was in good spirits and they were very grateful for the money to help take care of his needs, especially since they have this upcoming trip to Pennsylvania,” she said.  “He had the stuffed animals there with him that Jessie James had presented to the board for him, and he was glad to have that.

“We just wanted to do a small part towards bringing joy in anyway that we could to help out.”

Donations were collected Friday and Saturday night for the Hayes family, and another effort organized by 2024 Clay County Miss Teen Haylen Garrison and Fairest of the Fair Laney Haynes is ongoing (see related story).

Rich also explained judges from the annual statewide fair completion were in attendance, who not only saw the outpouring of community support for the Hayes family, but also recognized the significance of the efforts towards making this year’s fair a success.

“We had two judges come and they were very complimentary of our fair,” Rich said.  “Their comments and points will be calculated in with our written report that we turn in for the State Fair competition, where we won Class A Champion Fair a few years ago.

“We are eligible for that again and hoping for the best.”

Rich said one of the judges described the local event, which is smaller than what they were used to, as having “everything available that larger fairs do in a neat little package.”