It's the kickoff weekend for the 74th annual Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, which runs through Saturday, August 19th.
"It's such a great time, my happiest childhood memories are being here at the fair," said volunteer Karen Witt, whose grandparents helped found the fair in its early days.
Nine days of memory making at the fair: At the Home Arts Building, bakers compete with detailed cakes and crafters show off their handmade goods. The competition took in 2,700 entries this year, a high point.
"A lot of the items become family heirlooms," said Witt, superintendent of Home Arts. "If your grandmother makes a quilt for your bed, it's something that you grew up with and you treasure as a child and you pass down to your daughter and her daughter."
"All throughout the building, you'll see lots of dragons because our animal of the year this year was a dragon," said Terry Sorcek, Arts and Crafts Superintendent.
The public votes on an animal theme for the Arts and Crafts competition each year. Paintings and photographs, of any subject, win ribbons.
"For adults, teens, children and photography, we all have champion walls and so they're looking and saying 'I can't see my picture' and it's like-- is it up there? Yes! It's exciting," Sorcek said.
12-and 9-year-old Jensen and Jaden Fellows bring dairy cows from their family's Walkersville, Maryland farm to show them at the fair.
"My favorite parts of the fair are probably doing stuff with cows and laying in my hammock," said Jensen.
Some of the most popular animals in Old McDonald's Barn are the baby animals, like one calf who is 30 days old, visiting from Rock Hill Orchard Farm in Mt Airy, Maryland.
"I personally, I've lived in Montgomery County all 47 years of my life, so I've seen the changes of the area going from more of a rural area, building up through the suburbs," said Adonis Moten, superintendent of Old McDonald's Barn. "But a lot of the kids now, they’ll come out to the fair and they say the signs with Mt. Airy having cows, and where some of the animals are coming from, it opens their eyes and gives them a new outlook on what's actually here around us."
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