FRYEBURG, Maine — When fried dough and foliage come into view at the same time, it can only mean one thing: the Fryeburg Fair has returned.
The state's largest, and final, fair of the year welcomed 25,000 paying guests on its first day Sunday, according to fair spokesperson and lifelong resident Rachel Andrews Damon. That figure doesn't include children younger than 12 or the swaths of farmers and vendors who snake through the grounds.
The fair, along with others in the state, returned to action in 2021. But the green light didn't come until late spring, Missy Jordan, the agricultural promotions coordinator with the Maine Dept. of Agriculture, recalled.
"At the end of May, things started to ease and, all of a sudden, it was like, 'You can have a fair,'" she said. "... A fair like this that would usually book acts eight months out was now looking at a four-month window to figure out what they were gonna do."
Now, after walking among Monday's crowds, Damon was giddy. Farmers who had dealt with COVID and with drought now have one massive public party to send them off into winter.
"When you walk on here, you remember this as a kid," she smiled." You remember coming here with your brothers and sisters and your families, and that kicks back in on some level, and people just feel really good about it."
Just before 3 p.m. Monday, a young girl walked toward the exit with her family, an inflated purple alien under her arm. If standing upright, it would likely be as tall as she is.
It is a party, too, for the families, who made the drive to the small town on the New Hampshire border.
Just as they did when they were young.