Hello again and welcome back to America under the Microscope. 闲话美国Hello, James.

Hello, Lulu. So I have a question for you. When you think of places in America, what jumps into your head?

Well, New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles...

Those are just big cities on the coast. There's a whole lot of America in the middle.

Yeah, I don't really know that much about small town America to be honest.

Well a lot of Americans live in smaller communities, towns of maybe ten twenty thirty thousand people. In these small towns in these communities, we have events which we call county fairs.

County fair. Ah is that what we are going to talk about today?

It is what we're gonna talk about today.

By the way fairs, well, I mean you speak Chinese as well. So what would you say is closest to fairs in Chinese? I mean is it like cultural fair, like 文化节 or like temple fair 庙会？

Kind of a mix of both to be honest, although there would be no temple aspect but a lot of the things you do at these like in China the temple fairs in the culture affairs where they have performances, there's food, there' re games, are things out you would find at an American fair.

Sounds interesting. So it's, these fairs, you said it's county fairs. So I'm assuming is more like the local community, like little towns or just smaller cities.

If you go in America there's actually different levels, there's the county fair, there is also state fairs which will be much bigger for the whole state. But when most people in America think of fair, they think of the local one, the county one. And you'd get people from all walks of life who all live in the community to go to these events and spend time together and look at the displays, play the games, eat the food and talk to people maybe they haven't seen in a while.

So it's very big on the sense of community. Is that something that Americans most average Americans very value, the sense of community?

I would say in smaller towns, yes. Bigger cities, maybe less so, but I'm not too familiar with big city life.

And who organizes these fairs? Is it the local government?

It'll be the local governments, so they'll be like a organization committee. They’ll plan it, and usually a town will have what's called fair grounds which will have a stadium, there will be display halls. They'll be you know all the things facilities you need for a group of people to come for such of an event.

Is it usually outdoors?

Fifty fifty. There are some displays that will be inside buildings. Some things will be outside. So you'll be spending part of the time inside, part of the time outside.

Does that mean that fairs are usually held during the nice seasons, like spring, summer?

Typically third season right now in America which would be early autumn. So fairs run from spring to autumn in most places where the weather will be nice, winter obviously too cold.

That makes sense. So what about your hometown? When do they hold the county fair in your hometown?

First weekend in September. So we just missed it.

Well that you miss it. Um so at these county fairs you said that they have exhibition, basically they show things.

Yes.

Is it like the local products?

Yes. The things they show will be mostly agricultural goods. So things for animals that people raise. So you'll find, you know, pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, and so on, but also things that they've made whether there's local cheese makers, crafts they've made, whether they make...

When you say crafts, what exactly are? Because in China the crafts are very, very much cultural. I don't think you have the same sort of handicrafts as we do. So what are crafts at these kind of fairs?

You will find things like quilts for people to make big blankets with small little squares of fabric and sew them together and interesting designs.

Quilting,拼布, and?

Knitting and crocheting as well.

Knitting and crocheting, 钩针编织, sounds pretty standard. But apart from buying these, looking at these products and buying these handicrafts, what can people do at a fair? I'm sure they can eat and drink.

Sure that's what I like to do, it is interesting. But there are lots of things to do. Obviously yes the food and drink, there's also you can visit exhibits, see the crafts, you can see the animals. OK. There will also be events going on such as they'll be musical performances. There will be...

Just slow down for a little bit. Let's start with food. Oh, so to be more specific, I'm assuming it's mostly things like fast food like hamburger, hot dogs, barbecue?

Yes, yes and yes. Uh you could also find Mexican food like tacos. It is in general unhealthy fast food type things because...

They are yummy.

Oh very yummy. Not good for your waist.

No. But what is a fair? Is it just one day?

In my hometown is five days.

Five days. Okay, perhaps not five days, just straight feast of fast food.

Well people tend not to go all five days, but there's also a lot of regional stuff. So my hometown, we make a lot of wine. So it is not uncommon to do have wine tastings.

How nice, wine tastings at the fair.

Try the locally made red wines.

Great, apart from the food, at fairs, do you have things for kids like a, like a fairground, like games, carnival games and rides?

Oh yes, that's why kids love the fairs, because you have the carnival that shows up where there are the games, different toys, there are rides like a Ferris wheel or other spinning rides or swimming rides, very similar to what you'd find in many big parks in China actually.

Yes you do get. And also temple fairs now they have those carnival games. And also it's quite similar to what they do in Europe in summer. They also have these kind of carnival grounds. What about for adults, apart from buying and pigging out on these fast food? Do you get things like music?

Sure sure, they'll be musical performances. So like in my hometown, there is one night where they'll get a partially famous musician...

Not big big name.

Not a big big name, but not an unknown person to do a concert. There’ll also be smaller musical performances like when I was in high school, I was in band and we had to do a performance at the fair every year.

OK.

So they'll do lots of these and there's also going to be dancing. So like a swing dancing or country dancing, all kinds of things.

Which is outdoors or do you actually have specific dancing venues?

Depends, from place to place. My hometown's fair is outdoors because this time of year, the fair happens is very nice.

Nice weather.

Nice weather. There' re also fairs usually come with rodeo which we've talked about before.

So rodeo with cowboys?

Yes.

How are they gonna do that when there are lots of people? How are they gonna do...

No there's a stadium.

Oh, so there's a specific venue for rodeo. Is it popular?

Yeah. At fairs it's the big event. Most people go to the rodeo. You have to pay to get in the fair, and you have to buy another ticket to watch the rodeo.

So maybe for people who are traveling to United States, if they want to see a rodeo they can also try to see a rodeo at these kind of county fairs.

Yeah they usually go together. This leads us to the last thing really is the demolition derby.

I think I've heard of the idea but I never knew what that was. Demolition, does that mean destroying things?

It does.

And derby is a race.

Yes. So this is an event where community members will build a car so to crash into other cars, to force the cars to stop working.

Okay.

So drive around the track, hitting each other, and you win.

Sounds like bumper car.

It is like that but with real cars.

That sounds extremely dangerous.

It is but it's fun to watch.

Oh, it does sound really really dangerous with people driving in. I guess these cars are already not in the best condition.

Oh you don't use them to crash.

It is already a car on their last leg and then you sort of crashed them. Okay demolition derby, don't know who came up with that idea. sounds fun. I think they are still a lot more details that we can cover in the advanced episode about county fairs.

Yes especially the competitions.

Oh, sounds interesting. Until next time.

Bye everyone.

Bye.