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C’mon, how can you not go to this year’s Luzerne County Fair? They’ve got sharks!
Everybody knows how popular sharks are these days, just look at all those loopy movies: Sharknado, Dinoshark, Ghost shark, Megashark, Super Shark, Sand Sharks, Swamp Shark, Snow Sharks, Sharktopus.
Then there’s ABC TV’s popular “Shark Tank” and the whole-hearted hype of Discovery channel’s annual “Shark Week,” which has actually included a show titled “Sharkageddon.”
It’s an exceptionally safe bet there will be no ultimate battle of good and evil at the Luzerne County Fair, which began Wednesday at 4 p.m. and runs through Sunday at the fair grounds along Route 118 in Lehman Township. The sharks will be in a 5,000 gallon aquarium, and unless they have developed mutations allowing life on land, this can’t become a cheap sci-fi schlock flick.
Sharks aren’t the only unusual denizens displayed at the fair this year. Stingray Encounter LLC will let visitors get an up-close look at (obviously) stingrays, while tigers born in captivity star in Nerger’s Tiger Show.
No word if there will be tiger sharks.
But the fair is not a zoo, or even a circus. It is a family event unto itself, with a variety of attractions beyond stingrays and tigers and sharks (oh my!). Consider Ray Warner’s “High Boy.” The bearded gent from Nicholson has fused a Harley-Davidson motorcycles and a tractor (a Deere Hawg?), and as Edgar used to say in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, there’s something you don’t see every day, Chauncey.
There’s also arts and crafts, including juried art awards in various categories. And there’s music, a different act each night. And there’s food, both for the eating and for the judging.
They’ve got rides, including a “Kiddie Land” designed for the younger fair goers. They’ve got magic shows, wheelbarrow races, pedal tractor pulls and a tractor obstacle rodeo.
No word on whether High Boy will compete in that last one.
Stop by and get Halloween decorating ideas from the decorated and carved pumpkins, or try to figure out how contenders manipulated those little plastic bricks in the the Lego display contest. There’s also the Luzerne County Fair Princess contest Saturday at one.
Oh, and Barnyard Olympics, Sunday at 3 p.m., with two age categories (10 and under, 11-8), and battles in egg tossing, cow mooing, stick horse racing, bubble blowing and pyramid making (with cups).
All that and more for a mere $10 entrance fee, with children under 2 getting in no charge. Seniors can get in for $5 Thursday night.
There’s good reason for everyone to head to the fair Thursday, though: $2 from each regular admission and $1 from each senior discount admission will be donated to the Red Cross for Hurricane Harvey aid.
Lastly, if you don’t like sharks, there’s traditional livestock, horses, sheep, goats, rabbits, poultry and, of course, cows.
Now there’s a critter that will never get the glitz showered on sharks. Holsteinado? Angus Tank? Cattle Week? Cowageddon?