To The Editor:

The 2017 Kempton Fair - three days of viewing beautifully formed and cared-for livestock; graphic, horticultural, and culinary artistic expression; regionally famous musical talent; kids having non-computer-based fun with rides, games, and theater; fire-spewing truck and tractor power pulls and truck drag races; startlingly impressive fireworks; grown men trying to look like Willie Nelson; beautifully restored farm and garden implements; impressive new farming equipment; and, of course, amazing food to eat!

Country fairs are complicated, demanding of people’s skills and resources, and heavily dependent on the alignment of the planets and stars - and the weather - to make them successful.

Started exactly 50 years ago, back when a young and not-yet-famous Willie Nelson graced our stage, the Kempton Fair has enjoyed steadily increasing popularity due to the hard work of many devoted volunteers over the decades.

Happily, this year’s event, with a somewhat modified format from previous years, was a resounding success by any standard.

There has been some confusion.

For the last decade or so another entity has run a country fair in Kempton.

This year, the nonprofit Kempton Community Center itself put the event together, making it a “new” fair in the eyes of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

To establish the Kempton Fair again as an official state fair, and to receive those important state-fair grants, the Kempton Community Center must run the event for three years to qualify.

We’re on our way!

Many thanks to the numerous sponsors, supporters, performers, drivers, exhibitors, vendors, and volunteers who worked under the steady leadership of KCC President Dennis Reiss to make our 2017 event sing!

Look for an even better Kempton Fair in 2018.

Tom Kerr

Kempton Fair

secretary