By Audrey Hill, Valley Ag Voice
The Kern County Fair is approaching fast! The 12-day event will start on September 20 and end on October 1. This year’s fair includes free concerts, delicious food, monster trucks, a rodeo, livestock events, and much more!
The first Kern County Fair took place in 1916, located where the Kern County Museum and Clock Tower stand today. The entire five-day event was held on the 106-acre plot under tents, as no buildings had been erected yet. The first 34 years of the fair were held at this location until moving to the 160-acre plot off South P Street, where the fair is still held every year around late September into early October. Governors, parades, special political visitors, and of course, the community have all gathered on the fairgrounds to celebrate and enjoy themselves throughout the many years of its history.
Many know the fair to be the last hoorah of summer. Children and adults alike enjoy rollercoasters, carnival games and delicious treats to celebrate the end of the season. Originally, however, fairgoers celebrated the end of a different season. Livestock and harvest competitions have lived at the heart of the Kern County Fair for its entirety, and what may seem like a small slice of history is alive and unfaltering in the Kern agricultural community. Roughly 3,500 hogs, meat and dairy goats, lambs, beef and dairy cattle, turkeys, chickens, other foul, rabbits, alpacas, and llamas are hauled in with accompanying students, parents, grandparents, and more supporters every year.
Hannah Amick, a high school senior and an excellent example of the dedicated youth found throughout the livestock barns, is in her 12th year of showing livestock at the Kern County Fair. Amick has been hard at work with her 4-H club, West Bakersfield 4-H, for the majority of the year. She spends roughly 1 to 2 hours a day working with her pigs and goats. Over the past 12 years, Amick has shown almost every animal apart from cattle but admits that pigs have always been her favorite.
The 4-H program has also deeply embedded itself into the business community, engaging local businesses in sponsorship opportunities. Hannah visited roughly 30 business fronts and plans to engage even more before the fair. She explained it is hard to pin down how much she’s accumulated in sponsorship because of the new online format the fair switched to, but she knows she has secured at least $110.
“Showing has actually increased my love for animals because if you would’ve asked me 12 years ago when I was 5 or 6, when I started showing animals, I wanted what every kid wanted. I think I wanted to be a firefighter at first, and then it went to doctor, and as I got older, I started realizing I had this passion for animals,” Amick said. “That’s when it kinda pushed me, like I want to work with animals more, and I’ve juggled between going to college and becoming a vet tech or becoming a judge so I could go back to fairs even though I’m not showing, but still be able to participate in it.”
Amick later stated that she graduates from high school in December of this year and plans to attend night classes at Bakersfield College in order to work with her livestock for next year’s shows during the day. She plans to become a registered veterinary technician.
Livestock shows at the Kern County Fair remain an essential part of the agricultural industry by bringing kids, and even supporting or interested adults, face to face with livestock. They also represent the origins of the county fair as most fairs started as a way for the community to show off their animals and compete with their neighbors.
Today, the Kern County Fair has grown to encompass so much more than livestock exhibits. It’s a place where folks can relax and connect, where businesses can grow, where friends can be made, and ideas can be shared.
Here is a quick look at what else is to come at the 2023 Kern County Fair: A free concert by Rodney Atkins will kick off the fair on Wednesday, the 21st, at the Budweiser Pavilion. Every night after will offer a different free concert, such as Blue Oyster Cult and La Mafia. The Grandstands will host the Monster Truck Show on Friday the 22nd and Saturday the 23rd, and the official PRCA Rodeo will be held on Friday the 29th and Saturday the 30th. Lastly, the livestock auction will take place September 28-30.