rachelh@myweeklysentinel.com
TROY — The 2021 Troy Fair has kicked off this week at Alparon Park after a year hiatus due to COVID.
So far, participants this week have seen the Dairy Princess crowned, a baking contest, multiple animal shows and awards, food and craft vendors and so much more.
On Monday, the Troy Fair Junior Board hosted a STEM learning tent, with different stations for children to enjoy while learning.
Cheyenne Bastion-Brown, a five-year veteran of the Troy Fair Junior Board, is the President of the board this year. She spoke of many of the fun activities available during fair week.
“Doing activities like STEM Day is one of our big activities,” she said. “We run things like the volunteer kitchen and most of what the senior board does, we do, just on a smaller scale.”
Bastion-Brown won the 2018 Troy Fair Queen.
“That’s when my passion grew a lot more,” said Bastion-Brown about the fair. “The fair is just a really happy place and I think it’s great to see people share that joy and I think it’s just great to see people come out this year.”
The Troy Fair Junior Board also helps facilitate the princess contest, as well as the new prince contest this year.
The event will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday in the lower meadow large tent for the princesses and 2:30 p.m. for the prince contest.
“There are three princess contestants and one prince contestant,” said Bastion-Brown. “We’re super excited for that, especially since our prince contest just started this year.”
Bastion-Brown also noted a blue pig outside of the lower meadow tent on Monday, stating that his name is Wilber the pig, named after WHGL-FM (Wiggle 100)’s Shane Wilber.
“He’s like our mascot for the junior board,” said Bastion-Brown.
Wilber The Pig will move around the fair throughout the week and Bastion-Brown encourages folks to stop and take a photo with Wilber and upload it onto social media with the hashtag #whereswilber and tag the Troy Fair Junior Board.
Kid’s Day will take place in the lower meadow under the large tent from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The theme is “Trip Across the United States” and they invite children of all ages to participate in the many activities throughout the day.
There will also be a bicycle raffle, for each one boy and one girl. Repsol has donated bike helmets for each child to take home with them following the event.
“There are some awesome food vendors,” said Bastion-Brown. “There’s also the dairy promotion booth with awesome milkshakes to get your three doses of dairy a day.”
This weekend, there will be multiple entertainment shows as well as monster trucks and more.
“We’re excited for an awesome turnout. We’ve heard great things from other fairs,” said Bastion-Brown.
For more information on events taking place at Alparon Park throughout the week, go to http://troyfair.com.