The Mississippi County Fair Board and the Mississippi County Cooperative Extension are working together to update the fair catalog and exhibit rules for the Mississippi County Fair.
Those changes will take place this year, according to Sharon Meyer of the Fair Board.
"We are changing a number of the exhibit departments in order to comply with the Northeast Arkansas District and the Arkansas State Fair exhibitor rules," Meyer explained. "This way, an exhibitor who wins at our county fair can take the winning exhibit directly to the district and state fairs without making any changes in the way it is presented. As it is now, many of the exhibits we are accepting do not qualify for entry in either of the other fairs."
Pam Pruett, County Extension agent, is working with Meyer and other volunteers on the fair revamp project.
"Some of the exhibit areas had become so unmanageable as they were presented in the fair catalogue we were losing fair workers because of them," Pruett said. "We needed to make some changes to make things a little more manageable, and also to let fair goers see the exceptional work many of our exhibitors were submitting."
According to the Fair Board and the Extension Office, the following changes will be made to the adult division exhibitor rules for this coming 2015 fair:
1. Two categories, Linens and Knit and Crochet, will be combined. Instead of being two separate categories, these will be combined into the Home Furnishings Department. There will be one booth, one set of fair workers and one judge for this department. This conforms to the way these articles are displayed and judged at the district and state fairs.
2. Arts and Crafts and Holiday Crafts will be combined to make one category, which will be called Arts and Crafts. In this particular case, Pruett explained, these categories have actually been combined and judged together for the past several years. The change conforms to the way this category is displayed and judged at the district and state fairs.
3. The Adult Collections Department does not exist at the district or state fairs, and this category is the one that has caused the most problems for fair workers. The main issue is that is has not been made clear in the fair catalog what constitutes a collection. This year, the rules for this section are being clarified by emphasizing that all collections must be affixed or enclosed in a box, frame, matting, book or on a base and each item must be labeled correctly. The rules from 2014 had stated items should be displayed as a collection, but it was not clear on what that meant. The display and labeling of the items will be a large part of the judging process, and collections that are not properly mounted for display and labeled will not be accepted. A limit of five collections per exhibitor will be enforced, and in many cases the number of items in collections will be limited to a maximum of five.
4. The Baby Photos Department is being eliminated completely. This department does not exist at the district or state fairs, and in many cases exhibitors were entering professionally taken photographs and not photographs they had taken themselves. Categories for the entry of baby photos taken within the last year by the exhibitor will be added to adult photography department.
5. A number of new categories are being added to the Adult Photography Department, as well as several baby photo categories. These will comply, except for the baby photos, with photography categories at the district and state fair. Also, in order to conform with the other two fairs (state only takes 8-by-10 photos) all entrees in photography this year must be 8-by-10 size matted to 10-by-12 size with stiff matting or backing, which may be homemade or commercial but cannot be foam board.
6. In the Adult Heirlooms category, a limit of 10 entries per exhibitor will be implemented, and an additional limit of 3 items per exhibitor in the Miscellaneous Glass category will be implemented in order to gain control of another unwieldy department.
7. In the adult canning department, several canned food items are being eliminated at the suggestion of the State Extension Office because of food safety concerns. These are: canned squash including summer, winter, zucchini, spaghetti and pumpkin; pureed or mashed sweet potatoes; pureed or mashed potatoes; and canned soups with added noodles or other pasta, rice, flour, cream, milk or other thickening agents. In addition, new labels are being issued this year so that all three fairs can conform to the same labeling system. The new labels are smaller and will be placed over the top of the jar lid and under the ring, rather than on the side of the jar. This year only, both the old and the new labels will be accepted at the county and district fairs. Starting in 2016, only the new canning labels will be accepted. Labels can be picked up now at the Cooperative Extension Office next to the Blytheville Courthouse.
Anyone who is considering entering items in the fair this year should pick up a fair catalog and read through it carefully for all the changes taking place. Catalogs will be available sometime around the first of August from the Extension Office.
plen@rittermail.com