On the opening day of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair, Fred Fisher arrived with 13 piglets, all just four days old. The piglets slept close to each other in the corner of their stall as fairgoers looked on. But as soon as momma pig Eve made herself available and flopped over, the piglets scrambled over one another to get as close to her as possible.
Laughter filled the corner of the main livestock barn. “This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen,” a grandfather told his granddaughter.
The agricultural fair acts as the crescendo of summer on the Island, the one last exhale of the season that is always marked by laughter, no matter one’s age.
Jacob sheep, American white park cows and Lucky, a 35-year-old donkey, also lined the stalls of the livestock barn. Drake, a 17-year-old Percheron horse, was getting his horseshoe attended to.
Steve Devan, adorned with his traditional cow-patterned tie and hat, had just finished judging the livestock. The Vineyard fair is Mr. Devan’s sole judging duty.
“It gets better every year,” Mr. Devan said. “This was a really good year, a lot of nice entries.”
But what stood out for him this year were the junior entries.
“For me, what I liked about it, is when I started a lot of the kids who brought their animals in were smaller than the animals” he said. “Now, you can see they have better control of the animals and they’re getting it. To see them grow has been great.”
A notable growth was seven-year-old Jonathan Ruzzo, who took home a blue ribbon for his goats, Mr. Devan said.
“He’s really into this, you can see it in his face that he’s happy to bring in his goats, and now he’s bigger than they are,” Mr. Devan said.
Meanwhile, over at Robinson’s Racing Pigs, cheers erupted as Tsunami Salami, Soggy Bacon and Jerry Swinefeld dove into the pool and paddled towards a ramp to collect their winning treats. The racing pigs, a fair tradition, held regular races throughout the fair.
Nearby, pairs of draft horses competed to see who could drag the heaviest load. A light load of 6,400 pounds (the equivalent of two Volkswagens) was loaded up on Chuck and Buster as announcer Paul (Zeke) Wilkins took the mic.
“These guys are like little firecrackers this afternoon, all these draft horses want to do is pull,” Mr. Wilkins said. “They’re full of energy.”
Last year’s winner pulled in the range of 9,000 pounds.
Lumberjacks and lumberjills competed in the annual woodsman's contest vying for the cleanest saw cut and fastest springboard chop, among other events. And the tractor pull tested the power of machinery rather than brawn.
“Attack, attack!” Simon Bollin yelled as a teammate on Team Tire Explosion bounced up and down on his tractor, edging the machinery further and further with a hefty load on the back.
Over at the shucking contest, Ken Goldberg worked the crowd as the shuckers stood at the ready. Before the contest began, Mr. Goldberg convinced a young boy named Alexander to try a clam for the first time.
“Don’t bite the hard part, just the soft part,” Mr. Goldberg instructed. Alexander slurped it down and looked slightly perplexed at his accomplishment.
In the main hall, a farm stand display by Rusty Gordon of Ghost Island Farm took home a blue ribbon and a special state award. Another blue ribbon winner was a sunflower so tall it nearly reached the top of the main hall. Slip Away Farm took home special awards for their gladiolas. Caroline Van Valkenburgh took home a blue ribbon for her flower arrangement grown from her garden; it was displayed in the hall’s fireplace.
The Gay Head Light was a common theme across the art forms this year, most notably with a win for photographer Drew Kinsman with his aerial shot of the historic lighthouse move. Paula Karol of Edgartown won for her ceramic honey pot and Myles Thurlow took home a blue ribbon and special award for his wooden toy boat.
Over at the Midway, the Ferris wheel beckoned throughout the four days, as did the jungle gym, ball pit and slide.
Young kids marched up to the rulers in front of the rides to see if they were big kids this summer, tall enough to go on rides previously out of reach. Some chose to ride the chair swing, some the Zipper or Gravitron, while others happily leaned against the fences enjoying cotton candy or ice cream.
The fried dough line snaked around the carnival area but its scent traveled much farther, as did the call of the barkers trying to convince the crowd that everyone was a winner.
And everywhere parents tried to capture the scale of it all on their cameras as once again summer on the Vineyard sang its annual swan song.
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