Getting my fill of a New England fair

I went up to the Eastern States Exposition, or the Big E, for the first time last month. The Big E is a conglomeration of the New England states’ state fairs, with all of the attractions and trappings of such events. I enjoy fair visits.I remember many trips as a child to the Michigan State Fair. State fairs typically display and promote agricultural produce and farm animals. The Michigan State Fairgrounds were located at 8 Mile and Woodward: the staples of rural farm life simply seemed out of place in the decaying (even back then) urban setting of Detroit. Sadly, the Michigan State Fair, started in 1849 and claimed to be the oldest state fair in the country, lost its state funding in 2009 and attracted only 200,000 visitors (attendance peaked at 1.2 million in 1966 — interestingly, the year before the 1967 race riots in Detroit). The fair was not held in the following two years, and was resurrected in a different suburban location this year. I am not aware how successful the new event was.While stationed in Germany in the early 1990s, all of the German towns, big and small, had their annual volksfests. Munich’s Oktoberfest is the world’s largest fair, drawing 6 million visitors over its 16 days of celebration. Those visitors drink nearly 10 million liters of beer. For a few years, I contributed to that total (and, with some Army buddies, spent a few nights sleeping on benches in the bahnhof train station). Those Germans could drink a whole heck of a lot of beer — no way could us lightweight Americans keep pace. I didn’t even try, so I can at least remember my Oktoberfest days!So much of a fair visit involves food. Most of it isn’t very healthy. The German festivals had plenty of brats, ham hocks, sausages, cheeses, potato pancakes, and pretzels (and did I mention the beer?). Many German towns also had winter festivals, and the food at those events also included waffles and gluhwien, a hot, spicy wine drink that warmed you all over.With true German volksfests now an ocean and continent away, I was introduced several years ago to an incredible replica volksfest in northern Ohio, the annual German American Friendship Festival (held the weekend before Labor Day weekend in suburban Toledo). The atmosphere, beer, wine, food, music and dancing was wonderfully reminiscent of my time in Germany. Now living here, Ohio might as well be Germany with regard to distance, so I haven’t returned to Toledo for a couple years. Great time and highly recommended, though, if you ever have the opportunity to visit.So, with all those fair memories and gastronomic anticipation, we headed north to Springfield. As a Big E rookie, I simply followed the directions recommended by the Big E’s web site: over to I-91 north to Massachusetts Route 5. The traffic was atrocious on Route 5 — we sat pretty much motionless for nearly two hours in traffic lined for miles. I sent an email from my Blackberry to the fair organizers complaining about the lack of traffic control. The response I received basically said don’t come on the weekend because it’s less crowded during the week. I’ll take a different path next year.Once we made it through the gates (parking at an off-site lot), the fair atmosphere was everything that I enjoy: the people, the smells of food and animals, the music, the various hawkers, the overall “buzz.” We ate lobster rolls, chili cheese fries, gyros and fried dough. We could have eaten worse — we steered clear of the fried cheesecake, fried Twinkies, funnel cakes, and fried whoopee pies. They probably would have tasted good, though!I was a little disappointed in the farm animals. Not being familiar with the fair schedule, I didn’t realize that many animals are only at the fair for a short time. We got to see plenty of cows and a few horses, but didn’t see many of the smaller animals: pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits. I’ll look more closely at the schedule for next year.The huge vendor halls were interesting, mainly because of the variety of goods and people. I found a tie vendor and bought new Halloween and Christmas ties. I had been looking all over for those specialty ties!Fairs are fun, but can be expensive for families (but isn’t everything these days?). I look forward to exploring other area fairs next year. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Dale Martin is the town manager of Winchester.