The sky was gray over the San Benito County Fair Friday, but
that didn’t stop locals from enjoying themselves.
Tres Pinos – The sky was gray over the San Benito County Fair Friday, but that didn’t stop locals from enjoying themselves.
Hollister native J.J. Gomes said he’s looking forward to a full weekend of fun. Gomes said he’s been attending the fair “ever since I would remember” and that he and his wife would be participating in the truck pulls and other events.
The crummy weather didn’t make Gomes hesitate for a second.
“You can’t miss it,” he said. “This is the only thing good that happens in Hollister.”
The crowds weren’t exactly flooding the fairgrounds Friday afternoon, but there were plenty of parents and children climbing on the rides, devouring the junk food and coming face-to-face with the animals.
Friday was “kids day,” said Fair Manager Kelley Ferreira, so children age 12 and under got in for free. Organizers received around 1,100 reservations for free tickets, he said.
Graniterock spokesman Jim West and Marketing Services Manager Keith Severson were manning the Graniterock booth Friday, tempting passersby to guess the wait of the moss-colored stone in front of the booth. No one had come close, Severson said, except for one man who hadn’t bothered to submit a written guess.
So what’s the prize? The rock, of course. And that may be why the astute weight-guesser didn’t bother to enter the contest.
“He probably has a whole yard full of (rocks),” West said.
For many, agriculture and livestock are still the heart of the fair. Kevin Hill of Hollister said the pig judging and auctions are definitely his highlight. It probably helped that the 17-year-old had just snagged his first prize, a 2nd-place ribbon for his 282-pounder named Chopper.
Hill has been raising Chopper and his female compatriot Hamlet for months, making sure to feed them and clean them on a regular basis. He doesn’t come from a farming family – he lives in Ridgemark – but he became involved in the Future Farmers of America when he was in the eighth grade.
“Once I started doing it, I thought, ‘Ah, this is cool,’ ” he said.
Some locals complained that attendance seemed to be down.
“It gets smaller every year,” said Ellen El-Bisi of Hollister.
She blamed the drop-off on increased vendor fees, which drives vendors away and gives locals less incentive to attend.
But Ferreira said the number of vendors inside and outside the pavilion actually held steady or increased slightly this year. The big change, he said, was that the fair officially opened on Friday, not Thursday.
“We figured we aren’t making money (on Thursday), so probably no one else is,” he said. “The vendors seem to be pretty happy with it.”
And even El-Bisi and her friend Sally Lawrence of Prunedale said they had a good day. After all, El-Bisi, a trainer, had just won several prizes at the horse show.
“Well, we have fun wherever we go,” Lawrence added.
