'Hustle and bustle': Grant County Fair marks successful return after hiatus

MOSES LAKE — What a difference a year makes.

The Grant County Fair was bustling Saturday, with people walking along the midway and through the exhibit buildings, kids on the carnival rides, animals in the barns, and food booths doing a brisk business.

It was the contrast to 2020 that struck Mike Wallace, Quincy High School ag teacher and superintendent for the beef competition.

“Last year it was just spooky,” Wallace said.

The 2020 fair was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but fair officials put together a livestock sale for 4-H and FFA competitors. The animals were all at the fairgrounds, but the kids were not, Wallace said, and the whole scene was a little strange.

“It was silent,” he said.

By contrast, the fair was back in 2021 – exhibits and competitions, the Moses Lake Roundup, the Northwest Ag Demolition Derby, music, and carnival rides.

“This has been the best fair,” Wallace said. “Hustle and bustle and kids are smiling.”

Support for the exhibitors selling their animals in the livestock sale was among the best he’s ever seen, Wallace said. He had an exact amount, too, $706,410.75 just from the sale. Every year some livestock sale supporters make general donations, and those donations will be added to the total amount.

“Crazy amount of support,” Wallace said.

Grant County Central Services Director Tom Gaines was walking the grounds Saturday morning as part of the county’s maintenance crew. And he agreed it was a good fair.

“Great. It’s been great,” Gaines said. “Bigger crowds, for sure.”

It was definitely a busy fair for the crews at the fundraising food booths run by the Ephrata Lions Club and Moses Lake Youth Dynamics.

Linda Ebberson is the fair booth chair for the Lions, which sells hamburgers and hot dogs, among other things. The club sources its hamburger from a producer in Yakima, she said, and the Lions thought they had an adequate supply. But they ran out Thursday.

“Yesterday I made a trip to Yakima to get 250 pounds more,” she said. “And we had four boxes left at the end of (Friday) night.”

It was the first year running the booth for Moses Lake Youth Dynamics Director Sean Sallis.

“It’s been crazy. So busy,” he said.

Being his first year, Sallis said he didn’t have any frame of reference, but one of the organization’s longtime volunteers said it was the busiest he’d ever seen. The Youth Dynamics booth sells tater dogs, a baked potato with the middle cored out and stuffed with a sausage. Demand was so good Sallis had to send his wife on an emergency run to Wenatchee for more sausage, he said.

“It’s a good problem,” Sallis said. “It’s been great to see the community support.”

Frogg McMains is the manager of the Space Burger booth. It’s operated by the Lioness Club of Moses Lake and is one of the fair’s longtime traditions. She estimated business was up about 10% compared to the 2019 fair.

Brooke Melburn and Kallie Kooistra, both of Quincy, said they had a good fair. Kooistra received grand champion for goat fitting and showing and reserve champion ribbon for market class swine, and Melburn took home a grand champion award for swine fitting and showing.

“It’s really nice to have things semi-normal,” Melbourne said.

It was fun, Kooistra said, to see all the kids she hadn’t seen in a long time, and to hit the Space Burger booth – Space Burgers are just part of the fair.

“And the Block 40 milkshakes,” Kooistra said.

The Block 40 4-H Club booth sells ice cream, and has for decades.

“A lot of people, this is one of their stops when they come to the fair,” said Kerri Dowers, who was helping run the Block 40 booth Saturday morning.

Business had been better than expected, Dowers said.

“People are anxious to get out and be out,” she said.

The weather cooperated, as well, with temperatures in the 70s and 80s, rather than the 100-plus of the previous week.

“It’s been a great fair,” Wallace said.

More photos of the 2021 Grant County Fair can be found here.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.