Clearfield County Fair set to kick off July 17
Gavin Adcock will be performing on the grandstand stage on July 19. — Courtesy photo
By Andy Stine
astine@altoonamirror.com
The Clearfield County Fair is entering the 165th year in their history. The fair will begin on July 17 and end on July 25.
As far as fair manager Greg Hallstrom goes, he’s been involved with the fair for literally as long as he can remember.
“It’s all about tradition for me,” Hallstrom said. “My family has been involved with the fair forever, dating back to my grandfather. Now my granddaughter is involved with it — my daughter, my son, my mother, my sister. It’s a family thing for us growing up through the fire department. We just kind of kept around with it.”
For the nine days that the fair runs at the Clearfield Driving Park, admission will be $5 dollars, with parking running the same price. The exception is July 22 when admission will be free for the entire day.
For many visitors of the fair for a long time, the Clearfield County Fair was always held at the end of July into the beginning of August. That ended two years ago as the carnival was unavailable on the previous days. When they were unavailable, they moved it up a couple weeks and also went to nine days instead of the previous seven-day event.
“They weren’t available our old dates, and in this industry if you don’t have a good carnival, you won’t have much,” Hallstrom said.
Every year, usually sometime in the winter, fair-goers look forward to which musical groups and artists will be coming to Clearfield in the summer. This year, country music star Gavin Adcock will be performing on the grandstand stage on July 19.
Popular 90s rock bands Everclear and Sister Hazel will be performing on the last night of the fair on July 25.
The reaction from locals on the concerts are the same every year, according to Hallstrom.
“It doesn’t matter who you put out there,” Hallstrom said. “Half the people are happy, and half the people will say, ‘Who are they? Never heard of them.’ We get that every single year. It’s about 50/50, I would say.”
The parade is held on the Monday night every year through downtown Clearfield and finishes in the grandstand, and it will be no different this year on July 20.
Also popular in the grandstand is harness racing, which will be held on July 18 and July 21 at 5:30 p.m., and on July 19-20, and July 22 at 1 p.m.
Bullride Mania will be held on July 22, while the popular truck and tractor pulls are on July 23. The Black Cat Hell Drivers Stunt Car show will be on July 24.
All feature shows on the grandstand stage will begin at 7 p.m.
There are also additional musical acts performing at the David H. Litz stage throughout the fair.
Kids Day will be held on July 21. Kids will get in free until noon that day, and children will be able to take a ride in a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Kids finger printing will be held from noon to 2 p.m., and a pedal tractor pull will be held at 2:30 p.m.
Hallstrom noted there are quite a bit of new activities at the fair this year that have an America250 theme. He also noted there will be tug of war contests, farm animal calling, a hot dog eating contest, a pie-eating contest, and a potato sack race.
A full daily schedule can be found on the fair’s website at clearfieldcountyfair.com or at the fair’s Facebook page.