State Fair of Virginia: A Memory Maker

by Charles McGuigan 10.2022

Our family has a love affair with the State Fair of Virginia. A brief affair that never lasts more than ten days, but is packed with memories that persist for a lifetime.

It all started back in the early fall of 1998 when my daughter, Catherine, was about a year and a half old. Her very first ride was in the kiddie section. It was called the Killer Whales and featured eight hollowed out orcas that paraded at a snail’s pace in a circle with a few slight ups and downs. We had to ask the operator to stop the ride; it was too scary for this little girl who would go on to ride every gut-churning amusement from Kings Dominion to Bush Gardens, and can now scale sheer bluffs with bare hands and bouldering shoe-clad feet.

Five years after that first excursion to the Fair, Catherine’s brother, Charles, joined us, and she would often ride tandem with him in a stroller built for one. And Charles’s other sibling, Miranda, like another sister to Catherine and another daughter to me, would accompany us. They all loved the Midway and the State Fair food. But mainly it was the animals. At that time the State Fair was still held out at the Fair Grounds on Laburnum Avenue, just a hop, skip and jump from our home in Bellevue.

In those days we would often go to the Fair four or five times with different groups of people, and sometimes with a whole class from Holton Elementary School. We spent most of our time in the animal and livestock exhibits, watching the birth of calves, petting goats, staring in wonder at the perpetual motion machine of ducklings lured by feed waddle up the steps of a miniature ladder and then slip gently down a sliding board into a small pool of water, and once on dry land they would each begin the process again: It never stopped. Of course, there were the pig races and the horse competitions and the sideshows and the Farm Bureau Pavilion. And in the wondrous world of Young MacDonald’s Farm,  for more than an hour my kids would watch through a pane of glass as chicks pecked through their shells, casting off the last vestiges of their incubation, to glimpse light and to taste air for the very first time.

For many years, just as sure as the State Fair arrived, the first hard rains of autumn would arrive in all their wet fury. Even during the rains though we would often venture through the mud, dressed in makeshift ponchos.

The State Fair of Virginia has a long and storied past. The very first State Fair in Virginia was held in that green space we now call Monroe Park in the very heart of Virginia Commonwealth University. That was back in 1854, and there it remained for the next five years, at which time it relocated to the site now occupied by the Science Museum of Virginia. It was canceled two years later when Edmond Ruffin, a native Virginian, then a private in the Palmetto Guard down in South Carolina, fired a shot from a 64-pounder columbiad cannon at Fort Sumter, which, in effect, started the Civil War.

Even after the surrender at Appomattox it took some time to resuscitate the Fair, which finally reopened in 1869 to large, war-weary crowds, as Richmond began its long recuperation from a war that had flattened the city.

Things went along well until a few years before the turn of the century when the fair’s sponsor, the Virginia State Agricultural Society, accrued enormous debts that led again to the fair’s cancellation.

Ten years later, just after the dawn of the twentieth century, the State Fair was again resurrected. This time it was operated by a company called the Virginia State Fair Association, and was moved to the current location of The Diamond on what is now called Arthur Ashe Boulevard. It would be interrupted for a few years as the nation fought two world wars.

Then in 1946 the Virginia State Fair Association became Atlantic Rural Exposition Inc. and moved the Fair to Strawberry Hill just off Laburnum Avenue in Henrico County, where it remained until 1999 when Atlantic Rural sold the fair complex to Richmond International Raceway for $47 million. The fair had plans to move to a location in Varina but things fell apart, and in 2002 they rented back their old space at Strawberry Hill from Richmond International Raceway.

A year later Atlantic Rural Exposition bought Meadow Farm, birthplace of Triple Crown winner Secretariat, in Caroline County. They paid $5.3 million for the property and reorganized as the State Fair of Virginia, Inc.

In 2008 the State Fair broke ground on an $81 million complex called Meadow Event Park, and the following year the first State Fair was held at the Caroline site. Three years later the State Fair was attended by a record number of visitors. Unfortunately, the State Fair of Virginia Inc., citing stock losses and debts of about $75 million, filed for bankruptcy.

In 2012 the State Fair of Virginia and the Meadow Event Park were purchased at a foreclosure sale by Mark Lovell, a Tennessee fair owner, for $5.67 million.

Within the year, the Virginia Farm Bureau bought it all, and has been operating it ever since.

“What resonates the most for me is how the State Fair has persevered through world wars and weather woes and pandemics and still managed to continue on, and how what we do is such a family tradition for people,” says Marlene Jolliffe, who has served as executive director of the State Fair for the past seven years.

Marlene tells me that Fair goers enjoy anything related to agriculture. “We have so many critical components that gel and the end product is something that is both very raw and real in the agricultural piece,” she says. “We continue to really focus on educating people about how their food gets on the table. So you bring that real, rural farming agricultural story to the masses and you do it by also entertaining them at the same time, so people learn and have fun. I think I hang my hat on that. That’s what we do differently than theme parks and other entertainment attractions.”

And aside from the Midway, there are scores of other entertainment opportunities at the State Fair. There are live music events held daily, along with strolling acts that entertain the wandering crowds. Over its ten-day run this year, the State Fair provided more than 350 hours of live entertainment.  

This year the Fair also added a brand new attraction. “I’m really proud of the Triple Crown Circus that we invested in this year,” says Marlene. “It was fantastically produced. No animals, just all aerial acts and comedic acts. It was a huge hit.”

Every year the State Fair tweaks itself to make the event better for all those in attendance. “We had our daily guide printed in Spanish this year for the first time,” Marlene says. “We added some Spanish signage. We’re trying to do better at some key things that make different audiences feel comfortable here.”

And the State Fair wouldn’t be a state fair without the blue ribbon awards. Back in high school, my daughter, Catherine, entered a piece of her artwork that won her a ribbon and a $300 scholarship. When I ask Marlene about the scholarships, she says, “Since 2013 we’ve awarded $670,000 in scholarships.”

This year, the kids in Mrs. Jennifer Mazza’s class at Hermitage High School in Henrico County won the First Place Blue Ribbon for their landscaping entry.

Of course there are other competitions that folks enter—including those for culinary arts. For many years, our good friends Alane Cameron Ford and her children, Jefferson and Lorelei, would all enter their handiworks, culinary and otherwise, at the State Fair. As the kids became teenagers and young adults their interest in these contests waned.

“It seemed like an integral part of fall for them,” says Alane’s husband, Phil Ford, also a good friend. “A wonderful family bonding moment and a chance to share their wonderful creativity. I would watch and support them, but never thought I had the wherewithal to participate.”

As the kids lost interest, Phil stepped up to the plate. “That's when I decided I would make it something Alane and I could do as a couple together,” he says. “And while my skills and experience in the State Fair cram are not as seasoned as Alane's, I had a great time this year coming up with this dish for the VA Peanut Growers Savory Entree competition.”

And it is culinary perfection: I sampled one last week. It starts with homemade waffles, the batter of which is laced with peanut butter, and keep in mind this sapid sandwich is a tribute to products Virginia is famous for. The waffles are spread with a generous portion of crunchy peanut butter, and then there are subsequent layers of thinly sliced celery, Granny Smith Apples, and Kite’s Virginia country ham. To top it off: a schmear of hot pepper relish.

“And while it did not win any ribbons, I stand behind this sandwich,” says Phil.

Phil’s VA Sandwich also created a new memory, which is what the State Fair seems to be about. As its executive director, Marlene Jolliffe told me, “I hear a lot of stories about the memories people have of the Fair, and that makes me smile.”

Here then are memories my children wrote about the State Fair of Virginia.

Catherine Rose McGuigan

Growing up, the State Fair always signaled a sort of excitement that couldn't be found at any other point throughout the year. It was the smell of fried foods, musty straw and animal fur, greased gears; it was the bleating of goats, the rickety clanking of rides, the screams of excitement. More than anything, though, it was sheer, unbridled exhilaration and chaos. Let loose, my childhood friend and I would run somewhat rampant through the bustling aisles of food stalls and animal tents, making our way to the rides.

We'd spend what felt like hours on things that would now make my stomach a little more than upset. We'd dare to see who could do the unthinkable in the presence of centripetal force—who could press forward against it, or who could even turn upside down.

The fairgrounds always felt like a whole other world. It seemed crazy that they could fit so much stuff into such a finite area. Each area was, in my mind, segmented into different realms. As a child, it was always fun to venture between "realms," moving from the Rides to the Petting Zoo to the Food Court.

I have fond memories of a parade that used to happen. I don't know if it was every night, or once a week. But it felt like something that might have been pulled out of Ray Bradbury’s "Something Wicked This Way Comes." It felt like the circus and the Fair, with all their wild—sometimes unsavory—folks, had meshed together and would make their way throughout the fairgrounds just as it would hit dusk. There's something magical, happy, and a little sinister about that very autumnal memory.

Now that the fairgrounds are in Caroline County (and perhaps, too, that I'm older), I don't go to the fair. It's different, not being able to see the giant Ferris wheel looming over Laburnum Avenue, and not catching the faint scent of funnel cakes a mile away. It does, however, continue to hold a special place in my mind. It's always brought back by the changing of the leaves and the cooler temperature, reminding me of those days that I'd skip school to go lose myself to the wild thing that was the State Fair.

Charles Brandon Rapp McGuigan

Over the years, I have spent time at the State Fair with my family, friends and co-workers. I remember my dad and my sister riding the Dragon roller coaster with me, and visiting under the circus tents. Years ago, my mom and my sister Miranda, and Miranda’s friend, Carrie, went to the fair and had the best of times. I’ve played games and won prizes. I rode the bumper cars and the Ferris wheel and the Scrambler.

I went on the merry-go-round over and over again, and the music that played always made me feel good. The food was memorable, as well. What we mainly wanted were the funnel cakes and the cotton candy.

But the thing about the State Fair that I think me and my friends will never forget was seeing the animals. When I was in elementary school our class went to the Fair on field trips. Last year, me and my dad, and all of my Stir Crazy Cafe co-workers went to the Fair and stayed until closing. These are the memories that I will keep in my mind forever.