Alabama National Fair: Missing photos! Revealed!
We were like children when the Alabama National Fair came to town a few weeks back (Warning: Clicking that link opens the official website of the fair, but also causes a crazy song to play. You’ve been warned.) Evidently, we were not the only ones. Attendance for the fair was up over 20 percent this year — and that’s a good thing. The Montgomery Kiwanis Club does good things and they do a nice job with the fair. For more, see our 2012 interview with Rep. Joe Hubbard here.
When I say that we were like children, I don’t mean that we ate too much junk food before passing out in the back seat of the car. But I do mean that our sense of marvel and awe was somewhat restored by the spectacle of the fair and the weight of the tradition. And most importantly, we had a really good time. We’re presenting some of our photos in hopes that you’ll remember what fun you had this year and in hopes that you’re already thinking about attending next year. We were going to throw these photos in with our original post about our trip to the fair (which you can enjoy reading here) but we lost them. But they are now found — unearthed from the digital void and presented here on the Internet for your consumption.
It should be noted that our Alabama National Fair is not the same thing as the Alabama State Fair, which is totally inexplicably held in Shelby County. And it is held here in Montgomery and not at the “Alabama State Fairgrounds,” which is in Birmingham. According to the Bham Wiki:
The state fair discontinued regular use of the facility because of poor attendance and high crime in the adjacent neighborhood. The Alabama State Fair Authority went bankrupt, and was dissolved sometime around the year 2001. No state fair has been held on a regular basis since. (The “Alabama National Fair” in Montgomery and another carnival called the “Alabama State Fair” in Pelham, are unrelated.)
Bottom line: We’ve got the good fair here in our town and we’re lucky to have it.
- See you next year!
- Saying good-bye to the fair.
- The fair is beautiful.
- Victory!
- “Orient Express” is a roller coaster.
- Sibling funnel cakes preparing to be eaten.
- Art of cooking.
- What’s this? Red velvet funnel cake? You heard right.
- My favorite wheel pic.
- View from above.
- Wheel beauty.
- The Coliseum from the wheel.
- Alabama National Fair midway.
- More from the wheel.
- From the wheel.
- The mighty wheel.
- You never want to see rides dedicated to dead people.
- Octopus terror.
- The best wheel photo of the night.
- Ferris debuted his wheel in Chicago. Read Devil in the White City for more.
- Ferris was a genius.
- Spinning things.
- Classy drink offerings at the fair.
- More fair lights.
- Fair lights.
- Trying to win. Failing.
- Latter Day Saints test their luck at games of chance.
- Bored cops hang out in the lost kids gazebo.
- The sun goes down on the Midway.
- I don’t eat corn dogs, but enjoy posing near them.
- Lots of training required.
- These dogs were all rescued from death at a pound. We all should adopt more dogs.
- This dog had springs for legs.
- This dog was great.
- This guy was none-too-impressed by the Frisbee dogs. He’d seen it all before.
- The coliseum really is beautiful. People should love it more.
- The dog was a genius.
- Amazing dog. Blurry photo.
- Fast dogs are hard to photograph.
- The dog Frisbee trailer.
- The sun began to set.
- The fair promotes intellectual reflection.
- This was an award-winning … thing … about a unicorn.
- This autumn-themed nightmare exhibit won a ribbon.
- This won an award … for being evil.
- These magazines did a great job of being old. Congratulations to whoever saved them!
- This won an award for being the best something or other. It is great at generating fear.
- The exhibits of award winners stretches on.
- These sealed and uneaten food items were deemed to be the best of their kind.
- Someone was rewarded for creating this.
- A majestic vision of Oz.
- This nightmare escapee is here for horror.
- This won an award. Genius.
- Not a haunted house. Some kind of scarecrow contest.
- This plant is the best there is at what it does.
- Nature’s supreme beauty wins ribbons.
- Awesome art from the art show.
- ADEM had a recycling display. Montgomery still lacks curbside recycling pickup.
- Inside the coliseum, there were booths.
- The dead cow van on display.
- A pig racing fan wins a prize.
- More pigs taking a corner. A blur of speed and beauty.
- Pig track inspired by Talladega.
- Pig display of speed and agility.
- Pigs sprinting!
- The pig racing czar.
- A leather belt! With my name on it? Can’t lose.
- The coliseum looms in the background.
- Yo, Yo, it’s the swings!
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