County fair expands dynasty with another win
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By Dave Taylor
Hancock County Fair’s dynasty grew last week after it was again named the most progressive fair in its category and one of the top six fairs in the state.
Fair Board President Franklin Powers brought home another plaque after the county fair was announced as first place in Zone 1 Division A during the annual convention of the Kentucky Association of Fairs & Horse Shows at the Galt House in Louisville Saturday. Powers has brought home the same award eight times, including last year.
“I will tell you that’s a thrill to hear that,” Powers said Tuesday. “It is every year. You don’t ever get tired of it.”
The state is divided into three zones, each with two divisions, with A being counties with populations of less than 20,000 and B being those of greater than 20,000.
To win a fair must improve over its own performance the previous year, which makes it tougher to win over and over.
“You have to beat yourself more than somebody else does,” he said. “It gets harder to do.”
This year the fair won despite being a little down in participation for categories like gardening, but it improved a lot in other areas that offset it.
“I think we pretty well held our own on our exhibits in what I call the floral hall and the produce and crops,” he said. “But what I think propelled us to get here was the increase in our horse events. The mule show had a tremendous increase in turnout, and so did the horse pull.”
“And I’m dealing with the same people again this year and they’ve assured me they’re going to help us get back there again, OK,” he said.
Powers and Hancock County are starting to make a name for themselves in the county fair world, where people from other fairs recognize him by sight.
“You see all these people that you don’t know their names, you know their faces, and they all know your name,” he said. “I get a lot of that, them calling me by name, but I can’t call them by name.”
Winners share a bond, but they don’t share their winning secrets.
“No, we don’t tell, no,” he said. “There’s some things that I do I don’t want nobody to know about.”
He did offer, however, that every year he makes the rounds to state offices and agriculture events, meeting people and handing out Hancock County sorghum for them to remember him and the county.
“I get a tremendous response from that sorghum,” he said.
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