MANTI—The Sanpete County Fair, this year with the theme “Cowboy Boots and Buckin’ Chutes, is still more than a week away. But it’s none too soon to decide what you want to see or do, to buy tickets and to get exhibits ready.
The fair opens a week from Friday, Aug. 19 with a big concert in the fairgrounds arena featuring singer-songwriter Ian Munsick of Sheridan, Wyo., who is credited with breathing the Rocky Mountain West into country music. Some seating sections are already sold out.
The concert will launch eight days of events running to Saturday, Aug. 27. The biggest concen- tration of exhibits, competitions and show is on the last three days—Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Aug. 25, 26 and 27.
Whatever your age, interests or skill level, you should find things at the fair that capture your or your family’s attention.
“The Sanpete County Fair is a fun-filled family event honoring agriculture, business and education,” Sanpete County Commissioners write in their welcome message in the county fair book. “…If there was a blue ribbon given for strong family values and hard work, it would come to Sanpete County.”
Excitement seems to be building for the Ian Munsick concert on the first Friday at 7 p.m. As of Monday, about 1,300 tickets were available in the grandstand at $25 each. But “floor level” seats in front of the grandstand, priced at $35, were gone.
In an interview with Rumor Mill, a website devoted to country and western music, the interviewer suggested to Munsick, “You’re putting the western back in country.”
Munsick replied that his music is “not country.” Rather, he said, his sounds and lyrics reflect a whole different culture. “In the Rocky Mountains, the West, there’s a whole other lifestyle…. There’s a whole other audience that hasn’t been spoken to for a long time.”
On Saturday, Aug. 20, the day after the concert, the Exhibit Building opens to begin accept- ing “open-class” entries from the public. In the afternoon at 4:30, there’s a Dutch oven cook-off. (Sign up by 2 p.m.)
That evening at 6 p.m., there will be a Junior Rodeo for participants 5 to 18 years old. Events include mutton bustin’, calf roping and steer riding, along with barrel racing in two age categories.
On Tuesday, Aug. 23 at 7 p.m., the Extreme Moto-Racing show will roar into the arena. Pro motorcycle riders will take on jumps, rocks, mud, logs and other obstacles for cash and prizes. All seats are $10.
The Fireman’s Challenge, which in former years opened the fair, will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 24 at the arena. There’s no charge to watch local fire departments participate in timed events displaying their lifesaving skills and deftness in use of equipment.
Yes, the fire fighters will be using their hoses, and if you sit in the “splash zone,” you might get wet, or more accurately, soaked.
Local businesses have contributed to a cash jackpot, which will go to the winning fire department.
All the familiar big events start coming together Thursday, including judging of the Junior Livestock Show, the carnival and the rodeo featuring riders affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Professional Rodeo Association (RMPRA).
The carnival with its array of rides opens at 4 p.m. It starts up again at 3 p.m. on Friday and noon on Saturday. Tickets are $25 per day. Your kids need a separate ticket for each day they attend.
The rodeo grand entry begins at 6:45 and the rodeo at 7. All tickets are $10, but youngsters in kindergarten through fifth grade can get in free (Thursday only) if they fill out a form in the fairbook documenting that they’ve read 25 books since January.
The fair will be going full tilt all day Friday and Saturday. The Exhibit Building is open most of the day both days. Kids always have a ball showing and telling about their pets at the open pet show Friday at 2 p.m.
Fun on the Farm, the complex of stations where kids milk a make-believe cow, brand a cow, card wool, and gather products and turn them in to the “market” for money, runs from 4-7 p.m. It operates again on Saturday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
The Demolition Derby, which always packs the arena, is Friday at 7 p.m. It costs $50 to enter, but drivers compete for $44,000 in prizes. See the fair book for the entry and waiver-of-liability form.
The derby features separate heats for trucks and for mini, light, medium and heavy cars. Those competitions culminate in the contest for most aggressive driver.
Tickets are $15 for the grand stand and $10 for the bleachers. As of Monday, there were 800 seats left in the grandstand (although there were only 45 seats in the center section). But the fair website showed nearly 9,000 seats still available in four bleacher sections.
The final day, Saturday, opens with a car and truck show filling up most of the lawn at the southeast corner of the fairgrounds near 700 South and Main. The Junior Livestock Show and Auction is at 10 a.m. at the large animal barn.
The Sanpete County Cattleman’s Association puts on its beef feast at noon. The cattlemen will be honoring Brad Bown, a former Sanpete County Fair chairman and this year’s King Cowboy.
Manti City is offering free swimming at the city pool adjacent to the fairgrounds through the afternoon. There’s a pie-eating contest at 2 p.m.
The “Mammoth Parade” down Main Street in Manti will be held at 5 p.m. followed by another run of the RMPCA rodeo at 7.
All tickets are online. Go to https://sanpetecountyfair.net/ tickets where it’s easy to select your event and the seats you want and pay with a credit card.
