A participant in the youth cattle ring at a previous Littleville Fair.
Reminder Publishing file photo
CHESTER — The Littleville Fair, which traditionally kicks off the agricultural fair season in the area, will be celebrating its 103rd year Aug. 1-3 at the Littleville Fairgrounds, 15 Kinnebrook Rd. in Chester. Admission is $10, and children 12 years old and under are free.
Gates open Friday, Aug. 1 at 4 p.m. until 10 p.m., with Ox Draws starting the fair off at 5 p.m. in the pulling ring.
Fairgoers are reminded to wear their cowboy boots and bring their partners to do some line dancing from 6-9 p.m. with Stompin Boots.
Bingo starts at 6 p.m. in the dining hall while the always popular truck pulls take place outside, and, for the kids, the 4-H petting zoo, Family Jungle and the U.S. Army bounce house.
While browsing through the agricultural exhibits in the exhibit hall, be sure to get a free raffle ticket for the bike raffle or kids 12 and under. Two bikes with helmets will be given away each day on Friday, Saturday & Sunday during the fair.
Raffle tickets will also be available for purchase during the fair for a daily 50/50 raffle ticket draw, and four separate raffles for a Pelican cooler, two firepit rockers, a Stihl 20-inch MS271 chainsaw and a Savage Arms 220xp shotgun with scope that will be drawn on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at the close of the fair.
On Saturday, Aug. 2, the gates open at 7 a.m. for a full day of fun and games ending at 10 p.m. New this year are Diesel Truck Pulls at 9 a.m., with oxen draws, the Ox Teamster Challenge, and youth dairy and cattle shows beginning at 10 a.m.
Another new feature this year is a milking cow exhibit, where kids get to try their hands at milking a newly purchased “cow.” Additional activities for the kids include free kids face painting, kids pedal tractor pulls, Farm Olympics and a kids blueberry pie eating contest.
Returning to Littleville Fair is the Ed Popielarczyk Magic Show and Balloon Sculpting, and new this year is Henry the Juggler.
Featured on the music stage from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m is Old Country Road, followed by Jim Blanch and the Boot Hill Band from 5 to 9 p.m.
Burgers, hot dogs, ice cream, cotton candy and other goodies will be available in food booths, and the dining hall will be serving a BBQ dinner in the afternoon.
The ever-popular Demolition Derby is back for its third year with 4-, 6- and 8-cylinder classes and cash prizes. Rules and signups are available online at www.littlevillefair.com.
“Last year was a great success and, for some reason, people just love to see cars crash into each other. The Demo starts at 5 p.m. but be sure to come early cause last year we had such a crowd the traffic was crazy,” according to fair volunteers.
Sunday, Aug. 3, gates open at 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with antique tractor pulls beginning at 8 a.m.
Sunday is also the horses’ turn to show off their pulling talents with horse pulls starting at 10 a.m. and a sheep show that starts at 10 a.m. as well. Featured on Sunday afternoon is the kids mini-horse oull, which volunteers call “a must-see.”
Fairgoers are encouraged to sign up for the Jack n’ Jill Cross Cut Saw Competition, “a great way to see how well you work with your partner — don’t be shy, go out and have fun.”
Sunday’s popular turkey dinner “with all the fixin’s” will be served in the afternoon.
Pitoniak Brothers Band will start off the day on stage performing 9-11:30 a.m., followed by the Whiskey Traveler band from 1-4 p.m., to close out the fair.
Littleville Fair treasurer Jim Burke said it has been another banner year for the Littleville Fair, which was established in 1922 by the Community Fair Association of North Chester, Chester Hill and Littleville Inc.
Volunteers have been working hard over the past 12 months, planning and organizing as well as mowing the fields and cleaning the buildings getting ready. Among the improvements on the grounds are a new patio, new stairs going into the dining hall and new windows and booths in the exhibit hall, both of which were completely re-sided, thanks to grants from the Hampden County Improvement League.
The fair also has a new bath house completed last year with up-to-date accessible bathroom facilities for fair patrons, and showers for overnight guests. That project was kickstarted by a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant of $110,000, and the remaining funds were raised by the Littleville Fair Association through annual events and donations. Burke said over the past few years, over $200,000 was spent to upgrade fair facilities.
This spring, the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture also awarded the Littleville Fair Association an Agricultural Fair Infrastructure Grant of $100,000 for a new stormwater system and driveway into the fairgrounds. Work on that project will begin right after this year’s fair wraps up,
“With the Ag grant, we’ll pave the road from the entrance to the Dining Hall with drainage. The pavement will direct the water to drainage pipes and take it away. Next year, there will be whole new upgrades,” said Burke, a retired Air National Guard 104th master sergeant mission support group superintendent.
“We’re very fortunate to have Moe Boisseau [Littleville Fair Association president] with his excavating equipment and great volunteers that put the siding on the houses. And they do it for free — it’s amazing. That’s the good part — you’ve got to have good volunteers to make this work,” Burke said.
