JERSEYVILLE - The 151st annual Jersey County Fair will be held from Tuesday, July 12 - Sunday, July 17. The fair will feature carnival rides, grandstand events, fair food, animal shows, a petting zoo and much more.
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The accompanying Jersey County Fair Parade will be held Tuesday, July 12 at 6 p.m., traveling north on State Street beginning one block north of Route 16 and ending at the fairgrounds.
Admission to the fair is free for children under 12 years old, $2 for adults and parking is free.
Jersey County Fair President Phil Ringhausen Jr. said visitors can expect their favorite carnival rides to return this year, as they continue to work with Tinley Amusements with whom they’ve worked for over 40 years. Armbands for all-night carnival ride access are $20 on Tuesday and Sunday and $25 from Wednesday-Saturday.
Visitors will also be able to eat from some of their favorite fair food vendors during Fair Week, including stands with Pronto Pups and Lemonade Shake-Ups, a trailer with Mexican food, fried food stands like “Fried What!?,” and much more.
Different events are taking place each night in the grandstands; Tuesday night is the Talent Show, Wednesday night is the Jersey County Fair Queen Pageant, Thursday night is the IPRA/MRCA Rodeo, the Tractor Pulls are Friday night, the Truck Pulls are Saturday night and the Demolition Derby is on Sunday night.
Ticket prices vary by grandstand event; both the Talent Show and Jersey County Fair Queen Pageant are $7 for adults and $3 for children, the IPRA/MRCA Rodeo is $8 for adults and $4 for children, the Tractor pulls are $15 for adults, $8 for children and both the Truck Pulls and Demo Derby are $10 for adults, $6 for children.
Ringhausen said some fan-favorite free acts will be making their return this year as well.
“Our free acts that we have in our midway area, we change them up every year. This year, we brought the pig races back - everybody seems to enjoy the pig racing,” Rinhausen said. “Then we have clown comedian act for the kids and everything down at the other end of our amusement area.”
The petting zoo will also be back this year, and Ringhausen said the selection of animals for this year’s fair was chosen to reflect the fair’s agricultural focus.
“We keep it family-oriented, we still try to include the farming aspect with livestock and everything,” Ringhausen said. “We have a petting zoo that’s set up every night up there by the amusement area, and we’re going to have a dairy cow, a beef cow with a calf, [we’ll] try to get a young sow in with some piglets and chickens with little chickens so kids can kind of walk through and get the aspect of what really goes on in agriculture.”
A series of livestock shows will also take place during Fair Week, starting with the Sheep Show on Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. Wednesday is the Beef Show at 8 a.m. followed by the Rabbit Show that night at 6 p.m. Things will resume Saturday with the Swine Show at 8 a.m., followed by the Dairy Show at 9 a.m. that same morning. Finally, the Goat Show will be held on Sunday morning at 9 a.m.
For more information and updates on the Jersey County Fair, visit its Facebook page.
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