CARP – Bleachers were packed, lines were long, smiles were wide and today (Sept. 29) was all about the Carp Fair as tens of thousands of children of all ages made the Carp Agriculture Society fairgrounds the place to be.

It was the kind of weather synonymous with the Carp Fair, sunny, bright and crisp – a perfect fall day, and people from nearby and far away made the fair their destination.

But don’t take our word for it. West Carleton Online spent the day chatting with fairgoers finding out what they loved about the fair.

We ran in to besties, four-year-old Braelyn K and three-year-old Oskar Ritschel in one of the aforementioned long line-ups as they waited to get on the mini-rollercoaster.

They completely agreed with what they liked best at the fair – “the horses,” Braelyn said.

We talked to three-and-a-half-year-old Carp resident Clark McLaurin after he got off the train with his grandmother Lynn Levesque.

Not surprisingly, his favourite thing at the fair are “the rides, the choo-choo train.”

His nearby mother added Clark was pretty fond of the tractors as well.

Maverick Murray, 6, and Ethan Bachand, 7, were found riding a four-wheel ATV that had tracks instead of wheels. While they could agree on riding that, they differed on their favourite part of the Carp Fair so far.

“I like the petting zoo,” Maverick told West Carleton Online.

“The fun slides,” Ethan said.

Speaking of petting, we met Cumberland’s Nicholas Bertand, 7, and his family in the farm animal barn, petting the donkey.

Despite his young age this brave young man said “the drop ride,” was his favourite thing at the fair.

We’ll take his word for it as that ride was a little too intense for West Carleton Online. Something we have in common with Bertrand’s dad who sent mom along on ride duty for that particular trip.

When complimented on their bravery mom added “oh, we were scared.”

Sunday’s are busy at the fair with the midway, music, entertainment, shows and competitions.

A highlight of Sunday was the return of the Rawhide Rodeo. For the second-year top Canadian rodeo talent showed off their talents to a packed set of stands filled with fans.

The re-scheduled heavy horse show was added to an already full schedule of shows including several different beef shows, a kid’s rodeo, sheep shows, 4-H shows, horticultural demonstrations and so much more.

While we were unable to get the judge of the Showmanship Beef Show’s name, we felt he put it best when describing the talent and maturity on display at that, and all the youth shows.

“Excellent young kids,” the judge told the crowd while trying to place the competitors. “Sometimes it just comes down to how well your cows behave that day. Hats off to these kids.”

As the fair does every year, while the midway wound down and competitors packed up their animals, the rest of the still-large crowd headed to the rink. Well-known blues musician, 70-year-old David Wilcox returned to the fair (he also played in 2014) for a raucous event closing show. For more photos, keep scrolling down.