Hopkinton State Fair — Local services in Hopkinton

I love a good fair…as a kid I participated in them every year with my animals and craft exhibits and then did my children. I was super excited to visit this fair as I’ve never been to the Hopkington Fair before. The disappointment hit me fairly quickly unfortunately. The none porta-potty’s had any toilet paper, the tickets were expensive just to get in however that would have been fine had we not been gouged by everything in there. I was shocked to see more vendors than animal and exhibits combined. Things having nothing to even do with agriculture. There was 1 barn with actual farm/animal vendors selling products they made from their farms and small businesses. There was only 1 animal event ( dog jumping) which is what I gave a star for but I am a horse woman and the only horses I saw were in 1 barn and pony rides. I was surprised and disappointed that the only thing you could do was walk around supporting highly overpriced vendors who aren’t even from New Hampshire. They close up their trailers and on to the next fair. Not locals showing off the fruits of their labor and talents from long hours of devotion to their trade. Just a bunch of people who turned fair hopping into a lucrative business. So much so that the food wasn’t even real down home cooking but frozen Scool Lunch Pizza (basically bread with a dab of sauce and a few sprinkles of cheese! Really!!) And how much? $10 including a bottle of distilled water they sell at WalMart , $3.99/case of 24! It was extra charge to do anything you wanted to do inside so why the cost to enter? $7.00 for a Diet Coke, people smoking anywhere you want to stop to look at something including the bathroom attendant who was standing outside, puffing away as we stood in line and a big ole tip jar inside. She even had a boom box perched upon a stool, blaring ( I’m not exaggerating) hip hop music inside. Thought perhaps say…Country Music?!?🤷🏼‍♀️ So if I could say anything that would make a difference in a positive way, I will make a short, to the point summary with the goal being positive changes in the future. The integrity of a country fair has been lost to a business transaction. Money is the ultimate goal here and the reason fairs began…to commend the hard working people of the community, has been lost behind a dollar sign. It’s really sad, greed is the exact opposite of showing the pride these folks take in their hard work year round. They were overtaken by greedy traveling gypsy vendors selling stuff that has nothing to do with agriculture. So to the administrative folks who organize the event, this message is really for you. If this greedy method continues, karma will eventually come around and bite you…aka, drive interest in the event to other, less commercialized fairs. You can go to a theme park all year round so why go to one that doesn’t have napkins or toilet paper? Just saying… I think the event planning was poor because a 4 day fair needs to spread out the animal events over 4 days. Not 1 day then…sorry, that’s over.

I’m a 3rd party looking in, a patron of the event, a farmer as well. I think the real people of focus got thrown under the bus by the greed of business. I hope someone reads this and really thinks to look at the big picture, possibly being the first to start making the event more about the people in the community who work hard and less about having so many overpriced vendors only out for a buck. I step down from my soapbox with respect hoping to have made at least one simple change in the right direction. Peace and admiration to those who keep the...

We had a good time, the ticket to get in was not bad, the tickets for rides, and prices for games and food is another thing, that was all expensive. Though I'm sure no more than any other Fair around. Parking was free if you get there early enough to get the blue or green gates, it was pretty clean, including the bathrooms aside from the hand sanitizer stations throughout the Fair all being broken. My only real issue, is when we were ready to leave, there was 9 of us in our group and we showed up in 2 vehicles, one of the people with me was having a hard time walking at that point, so I went to get the vehicle and I asked after leaving the entrance/exit, if I could just pull up to pick them up, and was angrily told NO. No vehicles past that point, I explained why I asked and again was told no! So I walked to the vehicle and moved it up to an open spot that was closer but still a ways away, only to watch multiple other vehicles drive past that same worker and up to closer to the entrance/exit! That annoyed me! Once I saw the person in my group come out,using a cane BTW, I moved up and as soon as I did, here comes the angry worker to yell, at that point others also in my group were right behind and said to the guy it's 1 second, literally picking up someone who's hardly able to move, that's all and then moving the vehicle. After that he seemed to be fine. Even after that, I'd probably go back, because it was still a fun time...

My entire family went to the fair on Friday the 2nd. We pre-bought entry passes for myself and my husband. We also purchased megapasses for our oldest child and his friend. We have a 2.5 year old little girl that got in for free. We were unsure if she would want to go on any rides or not so we held off purchasing tickets ahead of time. Once there, we realized that she would want to ride. We purchased her the day pass that allowed her to ride from 12-5. The attendant place the wrist band on my daughter's wrist and she IMMEDIATELY began freaking out. She spent the next 5 minutes screaming, crying and saying that the band was causing her pain (it wasnt). It was then that we realized that we needed to take the bracelet off. In the past, we have had different situations with sensory issues. We went to the main office and explained the issue to them. They were more than accommodating to our situation. They allowed me to wear the bracelet in place of my daughter. They also radioed ahead to the attendants at the children's rides and explained the situation. Then, the cherry on top, was that they supplied us with a hand written note, in all 3 languages needed, explaining the situation. The staff at the fair took a very stressful and sad situation and made it incredible for our family. My daughter was able to ride several rides and had a blast....