ESSEX JUNCTION — Where stars might be visible other times of the year, neon rides stood out against the night sky above the Champlain Valley fairgrounds as dusk turned to dark on Wednesday evening. The country and pop music that blared from speakers was periodically overtaken by joyful shrieks of roller coaster riders. A sweet, sugary smell of cotton candy and fried food hung in the air as laughing, braces-clad teenagers weaved through crowds of people, fingers intertwined.
After more than a year and a half of living through Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, Champlain Valley fairgoers are happy to be back amidst the farm animals, flashing lights and fried dough stands.
For some, it was seeing old faces or bringing joy to people through the animals they show or food they make. For others, it was simply getting out of the house and doing something different after a year of social distancing and canceled events.
In the far northwest corner of the fairgrounds, away from most of the hustle and bustle, is the livestock barn. That’s where Joe Haddock keeps his Lincoln sheep, a breed with tight, shiny curls that hails from Lincolnshire, England. Haddock, a retired family doctor from Jericho, has been showing Lincoln sheep at the Champlain Valley Fair since 1978.
He’s missed only two years out of those 43: once for medical reasons and last year, when the fair was canceled due to the coronavirus.
“It was unusual, you know,” he said. “Usually you get your sheep ready for the fair and you see other people at the fair, people you’ve seen at the fair for years and years. So it was a void, there was a void there.”
Haddock started coming to the fair to show sheep when his kids were little. The family would come to the fair, stay all week “and take care of everybody’s sheep,” he said.
“It was great fun,” he said. “My two sons would sleep on bales of straw inside the sheep tent. They thought they owned the fair.” The family got increasingly involved over the years. Haddock served on the board and his wife, Carol Haddock, was the sheep superintendent, a job that entails preparing the pens and taking care of the sheep, for around 20 years.
Joe Haddock said the number of sheep at the fair has declined since he first started coming four decades ago. One year, there were over 500 sheep.
“It’s the changing times,” he said. “Fairs are having a hard time because they have to compete with Disney World and video games and all that stuff.”
Haddock, 74, said it makes him sad to see the fair changing, but he said he realizes that nothing can stay the same. “When you’re old like me, you see things way back when nostalgically and wistfully. Everything evolves but the flavor of the fair, that’s still here.”
Though Haddock noted how much the fair has changed over the years, other fair visitors said they appreciated how much has stayed the same.
“It’s fantastic to be able to show my son what I saw when I was a kid,” said lifelong South Burlington resident Shayne Hardy, who stood in an oxen barn holding his 9-year-old son Christopher’s hand. “Nothing has changed. Same thing every year.”
Hardy said the consistency is especially welcome this year.
“It’s just the fair,” he said. “It’s nice to have the fair back, the normalcy back.”
Usually Hardy and his family come to the fair one day per year, but this year they planned on making two rounds.
“We’ve gotta go twice to make up for last year,” he said, as Christopher nodded in agreement.
Ray Moskewich and Irene Murphy try to hit at least three fairs for the summer, usually parking their RV nearby and staying for the length of the event. Last summer was weird without the fairs, Murphy said, and now it’s “wonderful to be back.”
“Seeing the animals, and meeting up with old friends we only see at the fair — we missed it so much,” she said.
Others agree that the magic of the fair is rooted in the people.
“You kind of have fair friends,” said Jill Klein. Now 52 years old, she has been working her father’s sausage stand, Mr. Sausage, since she was 10.
Customers know her by name and there are people she recognizes year after year, she said. Folks will come by to get a sausage, but they end up staying to chat.
This year, she said, the fair is marked with a “special energy.” People are excited to be back.
“It’s been the longest two years,” she said.
