It’s a tradition that’s been around since 1841 – almost as old as the county itself.
Farm animals, carnival games, and much more took over the DuPage County Fairgrounds for the annual county fair.
New Layout
But a lot has changed for this year’s event.
“New footprint, so a lot of changes,” said Jim McGuire, executive director of the DuPage County Fair Association. “We’ve brought everyone down to this cool park setting, we’ve moved a lot of the family adventure stuff down here. So especially our Ag-venture land, we’ve got it down on the grass, out near the butterfly garden. So this whole area, parts are new, parts are old stuff but we’ve kind of just reformatted the grounds, spread it out a little bit and people really seemed to like it.”
Free Activities to Try
Right in the middle of the fair is another new attraction: SCARCE’s STEM-A-Palooza. The indoor exhibit acts as a cooling area, where kids and adults can explore hands-on STEM activities.
“They get to go around with fun things to do to learn all about that kind of stuff,” said SCARCE Educator and Program Coordinator Jean Kent. “We have recycled paper-making going on, we have activities with our watershed model where they learn about water quality and protecting pollutants from getting into our water source. We have boat races. They can create boats from recycled items or repurposed items and have fun with that and use their engineering skills.”
Other exhibits like the Illinois Target Archery Association’s archery range give residents plenty of activities to fill their day.
A Time-Honored Tradition
But deep down, the county fair is really about tradition and community.
“We celebrate the rich agricultural roots that we have but we also celebrate the new diverse community that we’ve become and get more people coming together, having fun, enjoying good food, sharing some cool experiences, learning some new stuff.”
Naperville News 17’s Casey Krajewski reports.
