The Durham Fair is back and people like Patricia King are excited.
“71,” she said with a laugh. That’s the number of fairs she has been to in her life. She used to live at the top of the fairgrounds.
“But it's my fair, I grew up here," King said.
King said she aims to hit the fair three times each year, and has been faithful rain or shine, only missing one in those 71 years. With a wet forecast for the weekend, she has already put her rain boots and jacket in her car.
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Others decided to head out to the fairgrounds Friday night so they didn’t have to deal with wet weekend weather.
“I saw the noon forecast and we decided, 'Hey, let’s just do it now, you’ve got until 10 p.m.,'" said Sue Kies of East Hartford.
People like Dominic Abbatiello are on night two of fair food and festivities, but nights three and four will be subject to the weather.
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“Hopefully we don’t get rained out, I want to see truck pulls and tractor pulls, that’s what I'm really here for," Abbatiello said.
But the fair president, Kim Terrill, is hopeful a chance of rain won’t scare away patrons.
“It has been raining all summer, we cannot stop our lives because of a little bit of weather, we are happy to welcome people here," Terill said.
The fair offers eight indoor buildings filled with crafts, exhibits, collections and animals when the rain comes through. When the rain stops…
“When it clears, you can head outside and hit the vendors," Terrill said.
The vendors are also hopeful for a strong weekend showing. Groups like the Coginchaug Little League rely on the fair weekend for big fundraising money.
“This is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year,” said Rick Quirk with the league. “We do a couple of other ones, but this is usually the biggest one of the year.”
Quirk said the league raises between $12,000 and $15,000 annually at the fair. He, like fair organizers, doesn’t want to see rain scare away customers.
“Definitely, definitely come out, there is still stuff to go through, and hopefully everyone comes out and everyone makes money," Quirk said.
