Make a gift in honor of the good that comes from BDN journalism in your hands, and help raise $60,000 this spring to support our reporting. Make a donation now.
The Blue Hill Fair’s historic, heavily used grandstand and exhibition hall is in need of repairs, according to fair officials.
The structure dates back to the early 1890s, when it was built with repurposed materials from the area’s early industries. But it also is not weatherized, rain gets inside when the wind blows a certain way, and it needs roofing repairs, according to Christy Jordan-Rebar, hall superintendent and secretary of the fair board. She worries starting those projects will reveal more costly issues.
So she and the fair’s flower superintendent Rhoda Burke have launched a fundraising campaign for critical upgrades, including roof repairs and replacement, weatherization, restoration on the inside and outside of the building, improved seating, upgrades to utilities, and better accessibility, she said. They don’t know yet how much repairs will cost, but she’d be happy to start with $10,000 to $15,000 this season.
“I think for what we really need to do to keep this building around for another century, we need to do some major work to it,” Jordan-Rebar said.
The new fundraising campaign is among ongoing efforts to upgrade older structures across the grounds of the landmark fair for future generations, according to organizers. Unlike other Maine agricultural fairs, the annual five-day Blue Hill event held across Labor Day weekend also has been growing steadily since the pandemic.
“We’re a true agricultural fair and we’ve stuck to those roots over the years,” fair manager Erik Fitch said. “We put a big emphasis on that, because people really are looking for that now, in today’s times, to come to see the animals and bring vegetables that they’ve grown in their own garden for a first place ribbon.”
The grandstand and exhibition hall is one of the fairgrounds’ most heavily used facilities, Jordan-Rebar said. Visitors watch shows and events from the grandstand seats. The hall below includes displays from local groups and the judging area for vegetable and flower competitions.
Repairs to the grandstand would keep its rustic look while shoring up the structure, she said.
Boards from the deck of a schooner make up the hall floor, a relic of the days when Blue Hill Bay was an active shipping area, and building materials in the grandstand were repurposed from an area mining camp, according to Jordan-Rebar. The building has been improved and expanded over the years, but appears mostly the same as when it was first built.
Fundraising will likely continue for several years unless a major sponsor appears.
An initial event will be held at the fairgrounds from July 17-19 as a “festival of trees”-style event focused on gardening, with sponsored displays from local businesses.
After this year’s fair in early September, the fair board separately plans to rebuild its livestock show arena if the weather is good and brings in the necessary funds, Fitch said.
The fair has strong local support to fund such projects, he said. Some board members are also in the carpentry business and can help keep costs down.
Fitch attributes some of its strong growth to being one of the only agricultural fairs in the region, and said many families come from neighboring Washington County.
In recent years, the 135-year-old fair approached its attendance record of 34,000-paying attendees over five days; visitors under 12 are free, so the actual visitor numbers are higher.
A schedule for this year’s fair should be released in July, according to Fitch, who spends most of the year preparing for Labor Day weekend. This year’s fair will be held from Sept. 3-7.
Visitors can already expect one new attraction: a life-sized, grant-funded plastic cow in the children’s area, whose rigid udders will be cut out and replaced with a setup that can teach kids how to milk. That aims to show them where milk comes from in a region with few remaining dairy farms.
