| AUGUST 21, 2010 -- Fair season is rapidly approaching in Northeastern Connecticut, with less than two weeks until the Brooklyn Fair and three until the Woodstock Fair.
The Brooklyn Fair, in its 161st year, opens on Aug. 26.
This year's fair will expand upon several new, popular additions in recent years, organizer Pam Bowden said. Bowden said the backyard farm, started in 2008, will offer more farming tips to residents this year.
A children's playland, which included building facades to give the appearance of a children's village, was added last year. Bowden said this year buildings will replace the facades and each will be their own learning unit.
A fireworks display returned to the Brooklyn Fair line-up last year for the first time in more than 30 years as part of the 200th anniversary celebration of the Windham County Agricultural Society, which sponsors the fair. There will be a fireworks display again this year on the fair's opening night.
Wendy Rondeau, of Brooklyn, said she plans to attend both fairs this summer with her family. She said Brooklyn is always a sentimental trip, because her daughter is a former Little Miss Brooklyn.
"So we always look to see who's going to follow in her footsteps," Rondeau said. In Woodstock, it's the children's art entries and the hand-cut french fries she looks forward to most.
The Woodstock Fair will celebrate its 150th anniversary this year, and residents will find several special attractions when the fair opens Sept. 3.
Fair general manager Don Farias said a special committee has been planning the landmark year celebration for more than a year.
Among the special attractions for the anniversary are a fireworks display and a parade, as well as a Civil War reenactment, which will camp at the fairgrounds throughout the fair.
"We were thinking, what was big in the 1860s?" Farias said. "And then we thought, the Civil War was going on. We're trying to depict life at that time."
Farias said bands will play music from eras starting with the 1900s up to present day. A third entertainment stage has been added this year to accommodate more musical acts.
The fair partnered with the Woodstock Historical Society to create displays and posters with historical facts about the region and the fair.
Farias said other additions include new pavement and drainage and building improvements to multiple parts of the fairgrounds, as well as an expansion to the Barnyard Babies Birthing Center. He said five calves were born at last year's fair.
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