Joe McGurn: Common Ground Country Fair, 2014

Mon, 09/22/2014 - 12:45pm

    Photographer Joe McGurn spent Sept. 20 at the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity and captured faces and scenes. The three-day fair is one of the most popular early fall destinations for visitors and locals alike, with nearly 60,000 making the trek western Waldo County. Almost the entire fair is held outside in the open, or under cover in a tent or barn, and usually, foul weather has no bearing on fair goers' motivation to get out and enjoy the varied experience.

    This year, as always, the Common Ground Country Fair was held the third weekend after Labor Day. And this year, there were more than 1,400 vendors, exhibitors and speakers.

    The Fair's online schedule is broken down by date and time, but then also by activity, focus or subject matter. For example, each day had vendors, activities and/or demonstrations geared toward children and the community, farming and homesteading, health and wellness, herbs, livestock, bikes and pedal power, social and political as well as policy and politics, music and dance, traditional arts, sustainable buildings and energy, whole life, and young Maine, to name a smattering.

    Areas of the Fair included:

    • Agricultural Demonstrations
    • Agricultural Products
    • Children's Area & Garden Parade
    • Common Kitchen
    • Composting & Recycling
    • Country Kitchen Demos
    • Crafts
    • Energy & Shelter
    • Entertainment
    • Environmental Concerns
    • Exhibition Hall
    • Farm & Homestead
    • Farmers' Market
    • Fiber Marketplace
    • Fleece Tent
    • Folk Arts
    • Food
    • Health & Healing
    • Herb Tent
    • Livestock
    • Low Impact Forestry
    • Maine Fiber Farms
    • Maine Marketplace
    • Maine Stoneworkers' Guild
    • Media
    • Maine Indian Basketmakers
    • Social & Political Action
    • Common Ground Country Fair Speakers and Presenters
    • Wednesday Spinners
    • Whole Life Tent
    • Youth Enterprise Zone
    • Young Maine

    Activities and events included:

    • 5K Foot Race
    • Donkey and Mule Show
    • Draft Horse Show
    • Harry S. Truman Games
    • Fleece Show
    • Sheep Dog Demonstrations

    For more information, visit mofga.org/thefair