NORTHAMPTON — A bright smile flashed across Keyla Ramos’ face as she watched her daughter, Avah, giggle as she ran through a maze of hay bales.
The event was the annual Three County Fair, and Ramos said she doesn’t ever miss a year.
“She’s an animal girl so she likes to touch them, pet them and make their sounds,” Ramos said of her kid.
The Ramos family, of Chicopee, were just some of the many people gathered for one of the longest ongoing agricultural fairs in the country. Running from Friday through Monday, the fair takes place every year over Labor Day weekend.
James Pryzpek, the fair’s general manager, said attendance on Friday and Saturday was the highest in the five years he has been managing the fair.
“We’re back to normal,” he said. “The weather played a big role in that.”
Pryzpek said the demolition derby — one of the most popular events at the fair — was sold out on Saturday evening. Other well-attended events included the baby barnyard and the “wee wee wee racing pigs,” Pryzpek said.
“These just continue to be wildly popular,” he said.
Lines were already snaking across the grounds on Sunday around noon, the smell of fried dough, popcorn and cotton candy wafting across the fairgrounds. A crowd gathered around the pig race, sitting and standing five people deep and cheering as the baby potbellied pigs ran around the track
Inside the baby barnyard, Jennifer Bennett of Westfield waited as her toddler, Emery, got ready to “milk” a fake cow. Emery clung to a stuffed koala and said that she enjoyed the clowns, which made her smile.
This year was the first that Bennett and her family have attended the fair.
“I think it’s great,” she said. “She loves the animals.”
Children raced through the barn as their caretakers looked on. Some of the most popular attractions included places for kids to ride pedal-powered “tractors” around and to pet baby animals.
In an adjacent barn, judges handed out prizes to animals and the owners who had raised them. Goats with curved horns tugged against their leashes as their owners listened to the judge’s description of their animals.
On one side of the barn, Northampton’s Caitlin Willard, 15, and Nellie Hankinson, 17, of Leverett, used special tools to brush one of their unnamed sheep. They were preparing the animal for the next day’s competition.
“We kind of sculpt her to the way we want her,” Willard said. The sheep let out a loud “baaaa” as she worked.
Next to them was Amanda Willard, 19, who was clipping loose ends from the coat of her sheep Urban.
“We want her to have a really nice, smooth appearance,” she said.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.