11-02-11 – State Fair

The State Fair of Louisiana Livestock Department is responsible for a majority of the events which take place on the Fairgrounds. Besides planning and conducting all the livestock shows throughout the 17-day State Fair, the Livestock staff also handles ?off-season? events.

that fair is running now through Nov 13th. it’s in Shreveport which is almost the polar opposite side of the sate and a 6+ hour drive.

Bandy yes a city fair is fine. What’s a Maker Faire?

Just how closely are we going to call the “clearly show it was at the fair” thing? This summer, I spent a hot humid evening at the fair with my girls (Mom was smart and stayed home :)) and brought a Canon and a 50 mm. I took some portraits of the carnies. With some, you can’t tell at all that I am at the fair. With others, you can sort of tell but it isn’t clear.

Would a carnie portrait with blurred neon be OK? Like this – http://photos.imageevent.com/ulle17/fark/carnie_3822t.jpg

How about a carnie with an essentially featureless setting? Like this – http://photos.imageevent.com/ulle17/fark/carnie_3656c.jpg

Bandy yes a city fair is fine. What’s a Maker Faire?

Whoa, a virgin! A Maker Faire is put on by Make Magazine … which is part of the do-it-yourself revival (cf. Instructibles on YouTube). People working in anything from fibers to metals, often repurposing something.

http://makezine.com/

At a Maker Faire, you’ll find vendors hawking their stuff (think: electronic kits to custom-made guitars), a local bicycle advocacy group with their human-powered carnival rides, soldering lessons, people racing highly-modified Power Wheels cars (the kind kids drive around), etc. The two big ones are in New York and (just south of) San Francisco, and there are also a few other local Mini Maker Faires scattered about the country. Kansas City’s went full-sized this year, housed in (and next to) Union Station.

My intent was for it to be the local agricultural exhibit. Where I am, at the end of summer/fall there are agricultural fairs, where people used to exhibit what they’ve grown that year (or raised in the case of livestock). Now it’s more of a carnival with rides (and demolition derbies).

Although I think I’d like to go to a Maker Faire, it is not what I had in mind for the contest.

I just found out that the county that I live in does have a fair. We’re half suburban hell and tend to forget about the rural parts of the county, despite the fact that the hold-outs still grow corn on their as-yet-undeveloped land between subdivisions. I’ve missed three so far?maybe I have some older county fair prints somewhere?

Ennnuipoet, as I mentioned up thread, this was intended to be about the ‘local’ agricultiral festival. (I use the word local loosely). However, at this point I think I’ll ease up on that definition and let street fairs and makers faire go and let the voters decide.