The Boulder County Fair will look more like its old self when it opens for business in August.
The 153-year-old event - the oldest of its kind in Colorado - will return Aug. 11-14 at the Boulder County Fairgrounds with a carnival, live entertainment, classic fair food, livestock and everything else that attracted as many as 160,000 people in 2019.
COVID-19 stunted the Boulder County Fair over the past two years, with hardly any in-person events and only small exhibits for local 4-H and Future Farmers of America members.
Pandemic restrictions have largely been lifted this summer and the fair is back with many of the same open-air activities that makes it a summer staple in Boulder County, Melanie Bohren, fair board president said Monday night.
“It really was not the fair as most of us think of it,” Bohren told the rest of the fair board during a Zoom meeting. “But we will return to that (usual) fair format this year.”
The fair will include pre-fair events Aug. 2-Aug. 10 including a dog and cat show and livestock events. The fair will kick off with the parade in downtown Longmont on Aug. 6, Bohren said.
The schedule calls for a “Kid’s Day” on Aug. 11, multicultural day on Aug. 12, live entertainment will be highlighted on Aug. 13 and junior livestock day is slated for Aug. 14, she said.
Fair officials are soliciting for bands and vendors, Bohren said. The event also needs a coordinator and other paid staff.
The lack of personnel and a depleted budget are behind the Boulder County Fair cutting back from its usual 10 days to only four, officials said Monday night.
A largely all-volunteer effort to bring back the fair to pre-COVID-19 levels can only go so far without more help, Bohren said.
“Booking bands, getting vendors, we are having to do what we can with what we have,” she said.
For more information on the 2022 fair go to: Boulder County Fair.
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