Barbara Lawlor, Gilpin County.  Each year, an event disappears from the Gilpin County Fair schedule and others fill in their slots.

It is a community’s way of keeping the activities fresh and enticing new participants, a way to evolve and emerge as the biggest event of the summer.

As the weekend nears, organizers of the fair look to the skies and hope they they don’t get rained or lightning-ed out. Except for one gully washer with strong winds and a drop in temperature, the weather held and the hoped-for crowds showed up to spend their money on food and fair vendors.

Politicians set up booths, giving away lip balm and pens and asking for donations to their election campaigns. Dogs of all sizes, shapes, breeds and temperaments promenaded with the owners, checking out all of the tantalizing smells a fair can conjure up.

Now and then applause erupted from the stage tent as locals demonstrated talents and auctioned off prize-winning taste treats. Bursts of cheers exploded from the arena as cowboys hung onto to their bulls or saddle broncs, and kids clung to sheep trying to stay on until the buzzer sounded.

Most of them slid off the wooly back within seconds of leaving the chute but some went determinedly streaking across the arena.

On Friday night, the party began with a Zombie paintball game, live music and the crowning of the GC Fair Queens, a first of what is tended to be a Gilpin Tradition.

Fair board members, Rene Kenyon, Linda Watson, Roxie Morris and Su Henry explained they wanted the queen be on throughout the weekend, welcoming the public, helping with events and then carrying out their role of representing the fair in the following year and promoting upcoming events.

This year, the girls had to undergo an interview process which gave them a chance to explain their responsibilities and commitments to the community. Out of this year’s applicants, two stuck out as outstanding members of the county, so a tie was called and both Alicia Johnson and Samantha Smith, both junior, were crowned and presented with a shawl.

Saturday dawned cloudy and cool and dry for the most part. Every now and then, the wind caught a tent and threatened to blow it away, but fast moving vendors chased them down. Fair goers hunkered down inside and pulled jackets out of their backpacks as a squall passed over.

Another new event was the ATV demonstration, many of them driven by local residents, and a soccer game. The four-wheelers pushed around large, air-filled plastic balls that seemed to have a mind of their own. Dirt bike riders scrambled up steps and did wheelies for the crowd.

All through the day, huge plastic balls carrying people maneuvered their way around a track, which the participants said, was a lot harder than it looked.

In the arena, children lined up to take advantage of the invitation to ride a bull. The bulls, like the children, were young and inexperienced, but their day at the fair introduced them to their career of trying to vault riders off their backs. They had small horns and seemed as scared as their riders.

Inside the exhibition hall, the dog agility contest brought in a herd of canine friends who were asked, cajoled, pushed or pulled through the course. First they bribed the judges and then crawled, leaped or balanced their way to the finish.

On Saturday night, a bonfire and hotdogs enticed a group of residents to enjoy the evening after a hard day at the fair.