Portland Fair to feature rides, trivia & wildlife show

PORTLAND - Fifty-one weeks of the year, the Exchange Club fairgrounds are part of the landscape - there, but not necessarily the first thing people think of when they think “Portland.”

And then there is the 52nd week, when the fairgrounds becomes Ground Zero for the Portland Agricultural Fair.

This is that week, when the normally bucolic fairground becomes the pulsing, throbbing heart of Portland, all in just eight acres. The three-day event opens for business at 6 p.m. on Friday

Fifty-one hours from the opening, crews from Coleman Bros. Shows were installing and testing the last components of the expanded midway. Meanwhile, Fair President Donald Bascom, the Mister Everything and Everywhere for the fair, was overseeing the installation of over-sized picnic tables at the beer garden.

Bascom is the man who revived the fair after it had slowly dwindled away due to a dearth of volunteers who were willing to keep it going. The issue of engaging volunteers and beginning to train the next generation who will carry the fair forward is still a nagging issue.

But with the clock counting down to opening night, Bascom was otherwise focused Wednesday, enumerating the reasons why people will enjoy this year’s version of the fair, the 18th since the fair was revived. Those reasons are many and varied.

“Coleman’s has brought in more rides,” Bascom said.

There will be a trivia contest at 3 p.m. Saturday, “with some really good prizes for teams that win,” Bascom said. InBev, the the beverage industry giant that owns Anheuser-Busch, is “our beer supplier,” Bascom said. This year, “they have brought along some Italian wine, so we will doing a wine tasting in addition to a craft-beer tasting,” Bascom said.

Participants in the wine tasting “can win a bottle of wine, and they will also be given a free Portland Fair wine glass,” he said. But perhaps the icing on the cake Friday night is the annual Portland Fireworks Display, set to scorch the night sky beginning at 8:30 p.m.

This year’s fair will also feature, for the first time, “Bwana Jim’s Wildlife Show.” Pennsylvania-based “Bwana Jim” (Moulton) is “an animal handler...who specializes in in reptiles such as snakes, alligators, and turtles, and other animals such as armadillos, wallabies and exotic birds,” according to a profile on his website www.bwanajim.com.

Moulton, who presents his show in the company of his wife and fellow animal handler Linda, “...has a rare gift for handling animals and shares his knowledge in an incredibly fun and entertaining way that is more memorable than any classroom experience,” his website said. Bwana Jim will appear regularly throughout all three days of the fair.

Saturday morning at 10 a.m. will feature an Antique Tractor Pull.

Bascom is like a prized chef, one who finds the best ingredients and then mixes them together to offer a diverse and wide-ranging menu of choices for his “guests.”

For some people it might be the petting, zoo; for others, the baking contests; for still others the music of groups like “Eight to the Bar,” while still others, the fair is about one event: the roaring, snorting, mud-slinging “Dirty Ditch Mud Run,” of which starts at noon on Sunday.

Friday night includes one of Bascom’s favorite events.

There are all varieties of ‘pull’ events throughout the three days of the fair. But it is Lawn Garden Tractor pull, which is begins at 5 p.m., a full hour before the fair officially opens, that delights Bascom.

“It’s so much fun watching these little kids (riding lawn tractors),” Bascom said.

The Portland Agricultural Fair is about fun.

“It’s a lot of fun!” First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said.

But it’s also about more than that, she said.

“It’s very important to the town, because it is a family-friendly event that is rooted in our agricultural heritage,” Bransfield said. “I’m particularly proud of the fact that the Portland Fireworks Display will be a part of the Portland Fair this year. So, park your car in the parking lot on Sand Hill Road, get a ride on the shuttle bus and come and join us.”

Admission to the fair is $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens 65 and older; active or reservist military with a valid ID will be admitted for free, as will children 10 years of age and younger.

Additional information about the fair is available at www.portlandfair.com.