GUILFORD-Walking onto the Guilford Fairgrounds on Labor Day weekend feels a lot like it must have in the 1940s. The cow competition, the horse pull, the blue-ribbon pies, the barbecue stand, and the bingo pavilion are just as generations of Guilford children remember things.
Growing up, David Franklin, president of the nonprofit Guilford Fair Association, which orchestrates the event, recalls spending the last weekend of every summer at the fair, where he’d spend the $10 he’d saved working at the family farm on games.
When it was gone, he remembers, “I’d go watch the horse pulls and things that didn’t cost anything.”
While the event retains that timeless country fair vibe, certain key elements have been modernized. There’s now an ATM so fairgoers can get cash, modern amusement park rides, and an amplified bandstand. The bathrooms, which Franklin, in his signature understated way, says, “used to be somewhat less sophisticated,” have real plumbing.
And Guilford’s beloved Labor Day tradition has grown over the years from one to two days, spanning the Sunday and Monday of the weekend, and drawing folks from all over Vermont for a sort of homecoming.
Somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 people show up at the gates each Labor Day weekend — a number much larger than the entire population of the town itself (2,120 as of the last census).
Yet the fair is run entirely by a nonprofit whose board consists of just a handful of volunteer members.
“It’s amazing to me it’s lasted so long, for such a small little thing that’s really put on by a handful of people,” board member Scott Mathes says.
The origins of the Guilford Fair
It all began with David Franklin’s great aunt Bertha, a schoolteacher at the Baker Road one-room schoolhouse.
In 1942, Bertha Franklin spearheaded the organization of a town agricultural fair at the Evans farm along Guilford Central Road. That first year, the Brattleboro Reformer reported that an estimated 1,000 people attended. Two tents “held the supply of food and drink, which only through the most heroic efforts of the committee even partially supplied the wants of the triply underestimated crowd,” the newspaper reported on Sept. 8, 1942.
The idea stuck, and the fair continued there for a decade.
It wasn’t the first fair in the area. The annual Valley Fair in Brattleboro, a regional agricultural fair, drew up to 25,000 attendees in its heyday in the early 1900s. But when the Great Depression intervened, the fair sank into financial trouble, and the land was eventually sold to the town (later to become the site of Brattleboro Union High School).
But the new Guilford Fair flourished and eventually outgrew the Evans Farm. In 1953, the fair acquired land from Guilford resident Bert Whittemore; it adjoined the land he had donated to the town in 1949 for use as Whittemore Park.
The Guilford Fairgrounds was born. The property is now 23.8 acres, according to the town’s Grand List.
The year the fair didn’t happen
In 2007, without enough money and volunteers, there was no fair. That year became a turning point in the history of the event, and was also when David Franklin joined the association.
“I just couldn’t not step up,” he said.
Belinda Lashway, too, grew up going to the fair every Labor Day weekend — the last hurrah of summer. Her mother served as superintendent of Fitch Hall, the central exhibition building at the fairgrounds, and Lashway’s 4-H group would sell prepackaged ice cream treats, milk, and chocolate milk out of a dairy wagon.
“One cold fair weekend, ice cream wasn’t selling, so we got an old-style percolator coffee pot and put chocolate milk in it and tried to serve it like it was hot chocolate,” she remembers.
After the no-fair year of 2007, a group met to talk about bringing the event back the next year. Lashway went.
“I never thought about being involved until it didn’t happen, but I couldn’t imagine it not continuing,” she said.
“At that time, there was $1,800 in the bank account, which is certainly not enough for a fair,” she recalled. “It’s not even enough to make change for the ticketing gates.”
Among their many contributions to the Guilford Fair Association over the years, Franklin and Lashway created a sponsorship program to build up the fair’s financial reserves, and they also modernized the systems used to organize sponsors and vendors.
Mathes joined the Fair Association in the late aughts as well, and the three were instrumental in getting the Guilford Fair back on solid ground.
Sometimes, that ground is wet. Franklin recalls one Labor Day weekend that was so rainy and soggy “there were ducks swimming in the parking lot. Did the fair happen that day? Yes, it did. But we had to cancel the horse pull,” he said.
With only a handful of exceptions — in 1943, because of “wartime conditions”; in 1974, when flooding canceled the fair altogether; in 2006, when heavy rains shut it down for a day; and, of course, in 2020, because of the pandemic.
Otherwise, the fair goes on rain or shine every year. And that’s especially remarkable since it’s a grassroots effort. While the town exempts the Fairgrounds from property taxes, not a penny of municipal funding supports the event. It exists entirely because of volunteer effort and sponsor contributions.
It really comes down to the volunteers
If you live in Guilford, you’re automatically a member of the Fair Association. Since the fairgrounds and the Fair Association are structured as a community-owned entity, residency itself confers membership rather than any application, dues, or formal enrollment.
And the fair depends deeply on townspeople to be successful each year. Any Guilfordite can attend a Fair Association meeting and is welcome to do so.
“You never know when someone’s going to show up and play a small part,” Lashway says. “You don’t have to give up your life and make a huge commitment. You can do small things and still be important.”
Volunteers are truly at the core of the fair. They get the fairgrounds ready in advance by cleaning and checking facilities. They register exhibitors on the Saturday before the fair begins. They work at the ticketing booth, taking money and greeting people as they come in. They help with trash, recycling, and compost throughout the weekend. They direct traffic into the parking areas and drive golf carts, helping older folks and people with mobility issues get up the hill to the fairgrounds. They support the ice cream contest and staff the merch table selling fair T-shirts.
These days, the monumental task of organizing the volunteers falls on Guilford resident Chuck Collins, who emphasizes, “Volunteering for the fair is a great way to work side-by-side with neighbors to host something inspiring for the town and region.”
Mathes manages the delicate logistics of food and craft vendors. And new board members like Mary Collins (Chuck’s wife) do everything in between.
Keep the fair alive
As factors like the skyrocketing cost of event insurance create ever-bigger barriers to survival, the sponsorship program created in 2008 and the ongoing efforts of the association and volunteers continue to keep the Guilford Fair going strong.
Adults attend for $10, senior citizens and children under 15 pay $5, and children under 5 get in free. These proceeds also play a part in financial security, which is why Franklin says to those who are tempted to sneak past the ticketing booth, “If you don’t pay, there is no fair.”
Groups like the Guilford Volunteer Fire Department also rely on the fair for annual fundraising.
But for many southern Vermonters, going to the Guilford Fair is about a lot more than just financially supporting an event — it is about preserving an enduring tradition.
This year, that tradition will include rides by Green Mountain Amusements, a talent showcase of musicians and singers, the annual horse and oxen pulls, a sheepshearing demo by Fred DePaul of Plymouth, a classic car show, a children’s bike raffle, exhibits and ribbons in Fitch Hall, Bingo, performances by New England Center for Circus Arts, an ice cream eating contest, and chainsaw and crosscut competitions.
As the Fair’s website boasts, “It’s a celebration of rural life and all things good in Guilford, Vermont!” And that’s a lot of things.
The Guilford Fair takes place this year on Sunday, Sept. 6, and Monday, Sept. 7 (Labor Day). Gates open at 7 a.m. all three days. Admission is $10 ($5 for ages 6–14 and for senior citizens; those younger than 5 are admitted free). Ride bracelets will be sold on Sunday, Sept. 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. for $25. The fair is cash only; an ATM will be available. For more information or to sign up to volunteer, visit guilfordfairvermont.com.
This News item by Joslyn McIntyre was written for The Commons.