People stood stock still. Necks craned. Those who were unwitting enough to have their heads down stepped around, muttering about these human obstacles in their path. But it was their loss. What was so dazzling that hundreds of people attending the 150th Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair were able to stop where they were and ignore everything around them?
The Flying Wallendas, of course.
The dazzling family performers took over the show ring at the fair on Thursday and Friday, where they crisscrossed the high wire, alone and in a human pyramid. At one point the bottom members of the pyramid rode bikes — on a high wire. All who watched were mesmerized by the act. “We’re doing this tonight, right, Dave?” laughed one fair staffer who sat in a golf cart with his working companion. Neither could take his eyes off the man in the red vest crossing the wire in the sky, balance bar in hand.
Gasps of delight escaped from the crowd.
The Wallendas were just one stunning act among many at the fair on this century and a half anniversary year. Inside the hall there were Paul Jackson’s stunning home-grown vegetable displays which took so many blue ribbons it was hard to count them all. There was Nancy Parrish’s shell table, three years in the making, the table itself a thrift shop find that the Vineyard Haven resident artfully covered with shells collected from around the world. A blue-ribbon winner for sure. Other ribbon winners included Caroline Kennedy’s cookies (shaped like the Vineyard) and a homemade dress by Autumn Richards, age 10, which also fetched a blue ribbon. Pam Flam’s gorgeous blue and white handmade quilt hung from the rafters in the hall, a centerpiece among the many colorful quilts entered this year, wearing a blue ribbon to match its color scheme. Gazette photographer Ivy Ashe won a blue ribbon for her photograph of racing pigs taken at the fair last year.
It was a good year for fairy gardens which were sprinkled about the hall like, well, fairy dust.
Outside the hall there was Doug Limon’s prize-winning goat, one of many prize livestock winners at the fair this year. And it was a good year for scarecrows which populated the livestock barn like so many stand-up comics, one with a fishing rod, another with a little red wagon.
There was the draft horse pull — which saw an unscripted moment when a pair of small draft horses bolted for the fence — the tractor pull and the woodsman’s contest that sent chips flying as chain saw and axe-wielding experts showed how the real work is done.
There was the Sizzler and the Tilt-a-Whirl and the screams of joy they produced, heard across the fair grounds throughout the weekend.
By day there were demonstrations on shearing sheep and milking cows. By night there was dancing to Island musicians. The Kelley Peters dance troupe dazzled.
The winter room at the hall was decorated with exhibits of lace (a category brought back this year to commemorate the 150th anniversary), and an oral history exhibit by the Martha’s Vineyard Museum featuring the matriarchs and patriarchs of the Agricultural Society through the years.
On Friday night when discount bracelets went on sale for the rides, the line snaked around the fair grounds from the ticket office to the fried dough booth. And it was so humid that night that the super slide had to be closed because the burlap wouldn’t slide any more, stuck to itself in the heavy, damp air.
Uncle Malcolm’s Jumping Frogs were a new feature at the fair this year. The frogs: Jeremiah, Pee-Wee, Ribbit and Knee Deep competed against each other in a froggy long jump of sorts. Jumping one at a time, with human coaches picked from the audience, each frog was allowed three jumps before the farthest distance was measured. The whole thing was a bit haphazard. Uncle Malcolm, decked out in overalls and a hat with a stuffed animal frog sewn on, the legs hanging over his face, announced the winners and laid out the rules with a cartoonish laugh. Anna Rosenblum of Hoboken, N.J., one of the winners, remarked on how slimy the frog was to touch. There was a brief moment of trepidation among people sitting in the front row when Pee-Wee seemed to be making a break for it.
On Sunday as the fair began to wind down, Jessie McIsaac stood guard outside the hall. For four days she and a fleet of volunteer staff in light purple M.V.A.S. T-shirts kept everything running, selling tickets, preventing food, drink and dogs from entering the hall and keeping gate crashers at bay in the evening. “It’s fun because you look at all the exhibits,” said Ms. McIsaac, a summer resident who won two ribbons for her paintings. Entering the fair is a long family tradition; she said her grandfather, who carves birds and enters them into the fair, has competed against the same wood-carver for years, with the two of them trading first and second place every year.
This special-edition 150th fair took two years of planning, according to longtime fair manager Eleanor Neubert. “You come here and step back in time a little,” Mrs. Neubert said. “Here on the Island, it becomes a whole community event of people getting together every year.”
Attendance was up this year; 30,159 people attended the fair over four days. The hall alone saw more than 4,000 entries and the barn saw 330 entries, not counting the chicks that were born on opening day. “The quality of the entries is amazing. People take it seriously and plan ahead,” Mrs. Neubert said, adding: “It seems there was more of a variety of animals and poultry than we’ve seen in awhile, which was nice to see.
“It seemed that it being the 150th fair, all participants and fair-goers put in a little bit of effort into making it a success. There was always something going on.”
Until next year, then.
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