By TIM STUHLDREHER | Business WriterThe Elizabethtown Fair has a lot of fans. One of them is the chief executive of the commonwealth.
Gov. Tom Corbett will take part in the fair’s opening ceremony at 6:45 p.m. this evening, fair spokeswoman Sally Nolt said.
He’ll then be given a tour, she said.
This will be Corbett’s fifth trip to the fair, she said: He came three times as attorney general and once before as governor, she said.
“He’s been a good supporter for fairs,” she said.
Related: Highlights of the 2014 Elizabethtown Fair
Now in its 41st year, the Elizabethtown Fair will run from 5 to 11 p.m. tonight and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. A full schedule is available on the fair website.
Admission is free. Parking is available next to the fairground at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church. It costs $4. That’s the official parking site, and there’s plenty of space, Nolt said.
Related: Complete list of 2014 Lancaster County fairs
As for the fair itself, “We try to provide something for everyone, from the youngest to the oldest,” she said. (Click here for some highlights from the schedule.)
It’s centered on agriculture, with plenty of livestock contests and shows and so on. There also will be rides, live music and lots and lots of food.
(Readers are encouraged to tweet their food pictures using the hashtag #LancasterFairFood.)
There’s a new event for children this year: The Grange Scavenger Hunt. Kids get a list of questions and have to visit various exhibits to find the answers.
The fair hosted a small scavenger hunt as an experiment last year, and it went well, so this year it’s being rolled out officially, Nolt said.
Also, chain saw carving is back, after being gone for “a good while,” Nolt said.
Missing from this year’s program is the traditional tractor pull. It’s absent because of “space concerns and growing pains.”
Instead, there will be a demonstration pull Saturday, with participation by invitation only.
The fair isn’t gated, so organizers can’t determine exactly how many people show up, Nolt said. However, they estimate attendance totals about 100,000 over the week.
