A Mudshow Season

early morning drive down to last day of the Chemung Co. Fair, in Horseheads, NY. Too early to chat with anyone -- but it's a pleasure to see a big county fair before it wakes up. Horseheads was the original home for the Strates Shows, so it's appropriate to see Strates on the lots, along with Ianni Concessions, etc. The Chemung County Fair is still a place where you can get a bad tattoo that you'll regret years later (That's a GOOD thing) and where you can still pay fifty cents for single-o attractions, or a buck for a bigger sideshow. Adam Burck's Tiger Show Experience was set up on the south end of the fairgrounds, and I could hear the tiger cubs as I walked through the gate. The set-up looked great, nice lighting for arena performances after dark. The big Hawthorne rolling cages were shaded with a plethora of fans for plenty of air circulation. Chemung Co is one of the oldest fairs in the state of New York, and clearly it's still going strong.