Good weather, good crowds for 2022 Lenawee County Fair

ADRIAN — Another Lenawee County Fair is in the books after a week of favorable weather and strong attendance.

“It’s been great to see the community come and have a great week,” Lenawee County Fair Board President Aaron Hinde said. “Can’t complain at all.”

The week opened Sunday with the parade through town to the fairgrounds. Longtime fair volunteer Marty Chrisman served as the parade’s grand marshal. Sunday even concluded with the fair queen pageant with Sand Creek schools alumna and Siena Heights University student Kindell Covey, 19, being crowned queen. First runner-up was Emily Maran, 17, of Deerfield and second-runner up was Kayleigh Barrett, 20, of Tecumseh.

Entertainment highlights of the week included Los Hermanos Villegas, the Adrian City Band, Your Generation, Three Men and a Tenor, MoTown and Electrik Circus Band at the bandshell and a new event at the grandstand, Bodacious Moves & Big Hair at the Fair: Lenawee’s Premier ’80s Dance Party.

Tractor pulls, figure 8 demolition derbies and the Tuff Truck and Car Competition returned to the grandstand.

Visitors appeared to navigate the fair’s new online ticketing system for admission to the fairgrounds, which allowed people to buy tickets in advance and skip the line at the ticket booths. Hinde said from the fair management viewpoint, the system provides the fair sales data and a way to communicate with customers, particularly for weather or other safety concerns.

“If there happened to be a big thunderstorm or something like that, if someone bought tickets online, we could send them a text, we could inform people this is what happened,” Hinde said.

Another new entertainment option, to make up for the lack of rides early in the week, was having bounce houses and other inflatables for kids.

“That worked out really well,” Hinde said. “We’ll see if we can do something like that again or something else.”

Occupational safety rules require carnival ride operators to have some breaks, so when the fair’s ride operator moves from its previous location to Adrian, it can’t start running the rides right away.

Hinde thanked the sponsors, volunteers, and the public for continuing to support the fair.

“We can’t put this fair on without volunteers, without sponsors, especially with the fair board,” he said. “Also thanking the general public. They’ve just been great. We’ve had a great turnout. It’s just been wonderful to see everybody and have them come out to the fair. All around, just thanks to everyone throughout the community … and thanking the weather, too.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Good weather, good crowds for 2022 Lenawee County Fair