DATE: Thursday, July 31, 1997               TAG: 9707310037

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   86 lines

MIDWAY, RIDES AND ANIMALS ARE COMING TO THE BEACH

IF THE TINKLE, clang and boom of calliope music and the garish, whirling lights of thrill rides are dim memories, you can relive your childhood state fair days at Fair at the Beach, opening Friday.

For the first time, the venerable State Fair of Virginia is taking a fair on the road, to folks in South Hampton Roads.

Representatives from all area five cities, which are co-sponsoring the event, will cut the ribbon at 2 p.m. Friday at Camp Pendleton, off General Booth Boulevard in Virginia Beach. Then the sights, sounds and smells of state and county fairs of yore will continue through Aug. 10.

The same carnival midway that makes the state fair in Richmond so much fun will be at Fair at the Beach, only on a smaller scale. More than 50 rides, games and activities will be the centerpiece of the 9-acre fairground.

State Fair organizers are bringing the event to the Beach in hopes of generating some excitement about the larger gathering each September in Richmond.

Sixty-eight percent of the attendance at the state fair there comes from the area around the capital city, says Joel Cadwell, director of operations and marketing for Fair at the Beach.

``We realize that not everybody has the opportunity to attend the state fair,'' he said. ``So we are showing off the state fair to them and asking them to come visit us in Richmond.''

Virginia is the first state fair in the nation to leave the fair gates and carry the fun to other parts of the state, Cadwell adds. This spring, Fair by the James was held in Lynchburg and now Fair at the Beach is opening here. Any profits from the fairs will go toward scholarship funds for students in each region.

The regional fairs are designed to offer a sampling of what takes places in Richmond, with the midway being the main attraction.

Rides for all ages and thrill levels will entice fair-goers, while carnival barkers will try luring customers to test their skills at games of chance. Traditional fair food like popcorn, hot dogs and cotton candy will fill the air with aromas certain to trigger memories of the fairs of yesteryear.

So will the sounds and smells of farm animals on display in the agriculture tent. Although there will be no competition among the animals, the steers, hogs, goats, sheep and other livestock will bring a state fair atmosphere to the event, minus the ribbons, said Louis Cullipher, director of the Virginia Beach Department of Agriculture.

``There's a little bit of farmer in everybody,'' Cullipher said.

Grown-ups can indulge their agrarian instincts in the antique farm equipment tent or at the quilt exhibit while their children can race through a 400-bale straw maze. And they can all watch the likes of sheep herding and shearing exhibitions in the demonstration ring.

Although the quilts and other crafts will be on display in the Home Arts tent, there won't be much competition in that arena either. About the only competition scheduled for this first year of the fair is a Cookie Baking Contest on Sunday. Entries are due between 1 and 2 p.m., and judging will be at 3 p.m. A special category for the best giant cookie is for grandparents and grandchildren only.

The five co-sponsoring Hampton Roads cities will take turns throughout the fair, showing off their stuff in a city showcase tent. Fair-goers will be treated to the sensational as well, including the high-dive act that features a human inferno. Or just the unusual, like a cockatoo that does human tricks.

``It's just like an old-fashioned county fair,'' Cadwell said, ``with a contemporary flair.''

Cadwell has been overseeing the transformation of a Camp Pendleton baseball diamond into a fairgrounds, complete with electricity, running water, tents, entertainment stages, portable toilets and other fair prerequisites. Seventy acres of free parking on three sides of the field can be reached through the fair entrance off Birdneck Road.

Cadwell, a Chesapeake resident, has been working for the Atlantic Rural Exposition for nearly a decade. The exposition, a non-profit corporation, produces the State Fair in Richmond, among other special events.

Although Fair at the Beach is budgeted for 75,000 people, Cadwell is hoping for an attendance of 100,000 over the 10-day period. The fair doesn't conflict with any other regional events and is timed for the peak of the tourist season.

The Lynchburg fair, only five days long, had an attendance of 35,000, Cadwell said, ``and we lost two days to rain.''

Cadwell is hoping folks will find the fair so much fun and so nostalgic that they will come more than once over the 10 days.

``We're doing everything we can,'' he said, ``to make it a fair you'll want to come to.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic by Bob Voros

Regional State Fair

Map KEYWORDS: REGIONAL STATE FAIR

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