It’s practically summer time again and that means its time for another version of the annual Clinton County Fair, which will kick off in just over a week.

The 2012 version of the fair will actually begin Saturday morning, June 16 and after a break on Sunday, will run a full week with festivities from June 18-23 at the fairgrounds.

Once again, the opening event for the local fair will be the baby show that will start June 16 at 10 a.m. for infants up to Tiny Miss and Mister. Then that evening, the Little Miss and Mister pageant will begin at 6 p.m. followed by the Miss Pre-Teen at 7 p.m. Added to those events, there will also be a cornhole tournament at the fairgrounds that same evening starting at 6 p.m.

A full week of night time and several day time events will begin in earnest on Monday, June 18, again with a night of pageantry as the Teen Miss pageant will be held at 7 p.m., followed by the Miss Clinton County Fair pageant at 8:30 p.m. For those more into farm or outdoor events, there will also be a mule pull which begins at 7 p.m.

On Tuesday, the exhibit hall will open for entries, as people can bring their items to the exhibit hall between 9 and 11 a.m., and exhibits will be on display both Tuesday and Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m.

The main event on Tuesday will be the family oriented “Family Night,” complete with several events including the sack race, 50 and 100 yard dash, shoe-in-the-haystack, three-legged race, egg toss, back seat driver contest, water bucket relay and tug-of-war, among some possible other surprise events.

The fun on Tuesday night starts at 7 p.m. and there will also be a 4-H open pet show at 6 p.m. that evening.

The demolition derby will return on its regular night, Wednesday, June 20 for large and small cars and lawn mowers.

On Thursday, persons who had exhibits in the exhibit hall need to pick up their items between 9 and 11 a.m. and the night feature will be the ATV and dirt bike rodeo, which will include a UTV class. That event kicks off at 7 p.m.

On Friday, a horse show will return to the main show ring starting at 7 p.m., with classes ranging from pleasure, walking horse, racking, gaited and saddle bred horses. Also on Friday, the annual tractor give-away will be held in the main exhibit building.

According to fair board president Jackie Flowers, again this year, all the main prizes will be in cash–other than the grand prize tractor. If all 350 tickets are sold, there would be two $1,000; two $500 and ten $100 prizes.

The closing day of the Clinton County Fair, Saturday, June 23, will see a morning 4-H and FFA livestock show being held at 9 a.m., then at 7 p.m. the main attraction will be the KTPA truck pull. Classes will include 4,300 lb. light pro-stock (mini-trucks), 5,800 lb. pro-stock two-wheel drive, 6,200 lb. pro stock four-wheel drive and 5,200 lb. hot rod tractors.

Also, for those not into truck pulls, there will be wrestling in the center ring starting at 8 p.m.

Flowers reminds fair patrons that there is a drawing for groceries at the conclusion of each night’s main event.

He also said the new exhibit building, on the west side of the main show ring, would be open this year for non-profit businesses or organizations to promote themselves. The new facility has 10 booths and Flowers noted that as of late last week there were two or three left if any business or organization was interested.

Flowers also noted that the carnival would be Carnival Tyme and they would be up and running Tuesday night, June 19. Arm bands may be purchased each night for patrons to ride as much as they want.

The fair board president also noted that all of the fair board members are volunteers and that more people willing to work to put on a good fair was always needed. He invited anyone interested in possibly serving on the fair board to come to their meetings, which are held the first Tuesday night of each month at the fairgrounds.

The first regular meeting of the fair board after the conclusion of the 2012 Clinton County Fair is scheduled Tuesday, July 3 at 6:30 p.m.

The annual Clinton County Fair special section, which will highlight complete details of all events, rules, contact people, etc. will be published in next weeks June 14 edition of the Clinton County News.