Each year, roughly a million people make their way to Hamburg to head to the Erie County Fair and take in 12 days of food, fanfare and family fun. Gates for this year’s 186th fair officially opened Wednesday.
There are some new and veteran faces this year, including Heritage Hill Farms, which traveled from Michigan with their eight draft horses.
The Erie County Fair is one of about a dozen fairs they will do this season, trekking some 10,000 miles across the U.S. to teach us the history of these 2,000-pound, 19-hand-high animals.
“Back in the day, they used to be the tractor,” Lynn Loveland, Heritage Hill Farms, said. “They would do all the field work and everything. Nowadays, they’re just mainly for enjoyment. People do parades with them…weddings. So it’s just to keep that going. It’s a big deal.”
Loveland says the draft horses are kid-friendly and will bend down to get pets.
Chester’s Gators and Taters are returning to the Erie County Fair for a 14th year. They are once again featuring a fair staple – a corn dog with a fork – complete with Frank’s hot sauce and Bison French Onion Chip Dip.
But as much as Cameron Murray loves serving up food, it is Western New York that keeps bringing him and his team back.
“We’ve had kids work with us and college kids through the years,” Murray said. “And now they’re having kids and their kids are coming around, and it’s just seeing generations of families out here and the history of the fair. And it’s a wonderful experience.”
At the end of the fair, food vendors team up to buy livestock. The fair then pays for the processing, and that meat goes to FeedMore WNY. It’s a tradition that has carried on for a decade.
The Erie County Fair runs through Aug. 23. Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.