As the county celebrates its 100th anniversary, Avery County holds on to the diminishing county-fair tradition

This is a special year for Avery County, the state’s 100th county. Largely rural, with about 18,000 residents, the county — the last to form in the state — is celebrating its 100th anniversary. This is the 19th Avery County Agricultural and Horticultural Fair, held through Saturday, Sept. 10, in Newland.

“It’s a good way to show off to our kids our agriculture,” said Jerry Moody, fair manager, of the fair, one of only two remaining county-wide fairs still held in Western North Carolina. [Click here for a fair schedule.]

Here, photographer Mike Belleme captures a bit of the fair’s opening day —  the rides, the prize-winning vegetables and livestock, the beauty pageant — all revealing the mood and spirit of one of the region’s last county fairs, on the celebration of its home’s centennial.

Correction: An earlier version of this essay reported there are two remaining county-wide fairs in Western North Carolina. There are three, in Avery, Haywood and Macon counties.


[galobj viewid=30]

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.

Angie Newsome was the executive director and editor of Carolina Public Press. Contact her at (828) 774-5290 or e-mail her at anewsome@carolinapublicpress.org.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *