Blue Hill Fair offers new attraction Ag-Venture Farm Tour lets visitors gather eggs, milk cows, feed goats

BLUE HILL – The rare, invisible ape has caused a stir at the Blue Hill Fairgrounds.

For the past several weeks, the sign at the entrance has announced that the ape was coming to this year’s Blue Hill Fair, which opens at 4 p.m. Thursday.

“I’ve been putting stuff on the board all summer for the events we’ve had, and I just wondered if anyone ever reads the sign,” Rob Eaton, the fair president, said Tuesday. “Well, it’s caused a little bit of a stir.

“There’s been a lot of people stopping to take a picture of the sign or have their picture taken with the sign. I guess people have been reading the sign.”

Although the ape might be hard to find at the fair, the many attractions, old and new, will be laid out within an easy walk along the fairgrounds, which, Eaton said, are in good shape after a winter’s worth of maintenance.

One of the new attractions this year, the Ag-Venture Farm Tour, highlights the fair’s 111-year-old tradition as an agricultural fair, Eaton said. The tour, subtitled “a day on the farm,” is an interactive farm animal exhibit that features animals representative of a modern farm. Fair-goers will be able to work with the animals, bottle feeding calves, gathering eggs, caring for goats, milking cows.

“I think this is going to be a good educational tool,” Eaton said. “We want to provide everybody with a good time, but we also have a responsibility to educate people. This is an agricultural fair, and we’re trying to promote it as an agricultural fair to some extent.”

The farm tour will join a variety of other agricultural exhibits and demonstrations scheduled throughout the fair, including dairy cows, beef critters, sheep, goats and even llamas. The popular fair tradition of horse and oxen pulling contests will be back again, and, returning for the second year, the Maine Antique Tractor Club will have an antique tractor pulling event Thursday afternoon.

On the lighter side of agriculture, Sue Wee Pig Racing will be at the fair for the first time this year for a “good, family event,” Eaton said.

Entertainment is always a big part of the Blue Hill Fair, and this year is no exception. The fair offers a large midway featuring games, a variety of foods and mechanical rides by Smokey’s Greater Shows.

At the grandstand, there will be the Hollywood Stunt Show. Perennial favorite Rick Charette and the Bubble Gum Band again will perform at the fair Sunday before the fireworks show. Maine’s own country singer Jenny Paquette, a big hit when she appeared at the fair last year, will return this year for a Friday night performance. The Southern rock band .38 Special will perform at 6 p.m. Monday to end the fair.

The fair is located on Route 172 in Blue Hill. Admission is $5 for adults Thursday and Friday, $6 Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Admission for senior citizens is $3 and $4; children under 12 are admitted free. All stage shows are free except for the Hollywood Stunt Show, which costs $2 for grandstand admission.