Champlain Valley Fair and Exposition
3625, 105 Pearl St, Essex Junction, VT 05452
If you visit Vermont at the end of summer, right before Labor Day, there is one event that dominates the Champlain Valley: The Fair, and more specifically, The Champlain Valley Fair and Exposition. Like many state fairs, it has the stock-in-trade attractions. You can see the 4H exhibits with the cows and chickens, as well as the midway with the games that nobody seems to win (complete with prizes varying from cheap plastic trinkets to switchblades and stuffed animals larger that the average toddler). The rides are the same, with names like ”The Zipper,” and carnie operators of dubious reputation. But like any state fair, it’s not what is the same that makes it special. It’s the differences that stand out. In Vermont, it’s the permanent structures. The fairgrounds have solid buildings year round that house the same vendors from year to year. There’s the Vermont Building where you can get “sugar on snow.”[1] You can get anything maple: maple apples, maple candy, maple ice cream, maple coffee, even maple cotton candy.
The Champlain Valley Fair and Exposition was started in 1913, when members of the Essex Grange no. 155 decided to organize a fair committee. The Committee decided the fair would be a one-day event, and the Town Hall of Essex Center would house the exhibits. The first fair was held in 1914 to great success, so much so that it was expanded to TWO days. Each year, the event grew larger until, in 1917, it was renamed the Chittenden County Fair to more accurately describe its function and scope, until eventually coming to its current name in 1922, when 15,000 people attended over the now three-day fair. Eventually, the fair expanded from merely a 4H theme to what we would recognize as a typical state fair including, at one time, harness racing, which required a track and grandstand to be built. With this expansion came side shows, vaudeville acts and carnival style rides, leading to the modern fair where big time musical country and rock acts have played.
Another one of these permanent buildings is the Fat Daddy’s building. Fat Daddy’s serves typical fair food, including turkey legs and “Michigan Hot Dogs.”[2] Fat Daddy’s is best knows for its onion rings, cut into ribbons and flash fried. The onion rings come in a huge pile, almost as one giant organism. For such a huge amount, they are surprisingly light. Though not so flavorful, they are powerfully sweet and, to this reviewer’s taste, required some salt to offset the sweetness.
RING RATING: 2 of 5 Stars
[1] Sugar on snow is a Vermont tradition in which you drizzle hot maple syrup on real snow, and then eat it. The combination of snow and syrup is a treat worth trying. Traditionally, it is done in a “sugar shack” up in the woods, with real snow, often accompanied by a pickle to contrast against the sweetness of the maple syrup. At the fair, they use crushed ice. It’s not quite the same, but still worth a try.
[2] A hot dog with meat sauce, similar to a chili dog, but with a tomato base.
