UNITY — The Common Ground Fair is one of the largest attractions held in Maine, drawing in over 60,000 participants annually. It is an opportunity to see citizens from all across Maine join together to enjoy Maine's rich history and traditions. Held in the small town of Unity, which has a population of 2,099, the fair continues to be a success year after year, growing from 63,330 participants in 2007 to 65,098 as of 2015. What is it exactly that keeps fair goers coming year after year?

Youth Enterprise Zone Coordinator Sari Lindauer was first drawn to this fair when she moved from the Midwest to Maine more than 30 years ago.

"It's really about the incredible friendliness and inclusiveness here," she said. "And over the years that has not changed."

She said she hasn't missed a fair since, though in her early years she attended as a merchant and a volunteer.

"Everyone is here to make a better world. I was always drawn to the political action or environmental action tents and then I just thought – What a better way to make change than to be a part of it and not just be an observer?" Lindauer said.

Lindauer's Common Ground experience began with the booth, "Kids Conjure," which sold fantasy wear for children. After two years, she became a volunteer, working to help check in fair goers and show them to their booths. After 10 years as a volunteer, she landed in her current position.

Since working her way up from volunteer to coordinator, Lindauer has had a drive to help the youth of the fair succeed with their booths for the last 11 years. Working closely with participating youth, she said she has learned many things about how they view this fair, in particular how much they value the exposure to new ideas and a wide variety of people.

"It raises awareness for the kids and maybe it makes people a little more tolerant to people who are different," said Lindauer.

This community connection and celebration of difference creates an atmosphere of friendliness and inclusiveness that can be felt throughout the fair grounds. From new fair goers to seasoned booth runners, the fair is an epicenter of creation. Artists have always used this epicenter to flourish.

Artist Ron Cowan and his wife, Cheryl, have moved all across the continental United States sharing their lives and work together. The Cowans consider themselves to be "carny people," an informal term used to describe festival staffers who often travel from fairground to fairground.

They have been displaying their wood carving art at the Common Ground fair for four years now. Ron Cowan said he now chooses to show his work here due to the attention it receives and because the majority of their annual sales come from the fair attendees.

"My work is to create a human emotion," Ron Cowan said. And the main subject? Faces.

His reasoning is simple, said Cherie Cowan, "He just has a passion for carving faces."

Cowan's first piece was a clay face carved into a 200-year-old piece of chestnut tree from Connecticut. This piece was used in Mel Gibson's 1993 hit movie, The Man Without a Face, filmed in Camden, Deer Isle, Lincolnville and Rockport among other locations. Having used wood as his medium for 38 years, Cowan is still just as passionate about his work as the day he started. And his biggest reward?

"The enjoyment others get," he said.

Cowan's wood carvings are placed to be aesthetically inviting, so that the pieces can stand individually or hold the viewers' attention as a whole. Every face chosen to become a piece of art is etched in detail, as shown from the curvatures and facial expressions. Cowan left us with, "To be in this life as an artist is a wonderful and not so wonderful thing."

Another one of the booth runners that can relate to this feeling is Kehben Grier. As the Founder of the Beehive Design Collective, "a wildly-motivated, all-volunteer, art-activist collective dedicated to cross-pollinating the grassroots," she also values the dynamism of the fair. The collective she founded in 2000 now has 30 participants at any given time. Together, they anonymously produce art that responds to their views of social and political injustices.

Grier's overall mission with her team is to, "Help make a place for other people to be able to rock out on art and activism." She said Common Ground Fair is a perfect avenue for their work and in turn, they bring a particularly fitting energy to the fair.

"Nothing else at the fair is exactly like this," Grier said. "It's environmental, political and fun."

Having participated as both fair goers and a business team for more than 16 years, the Beehive Design Collective keeps coming back to the fair with the goal of entertaining and informing the public.

"This is the main event that we have to connect our community statewide," Grier said. Based in Machias, the Beehive Collective does not have many opportunities to connect their community to a statewide audience.

With so much to see and experience, it is easy to get lost in the rural extravagance that is the fair. Booth owner Lisa Bess, a jeweler, said she thrives in the richness of the fair.

"Common Ground is everything; you can find everything here," said Bess.

Bess has been an active fair participant for 17 years, getting grandfathered in after her first 10 consecutive years of success. The idea for her affordable bright, quirky jewelry booth is to look like theater set. She believes that if an artist can make work that speaks to what is going on in their heart and soul, others will naturally be engaged.

"These are my people, my crowd," she said of the fair goers, and many attendees seem to reciprocate this notion. Her booth is filled with participants coming to enjoy and wear her art. She attributes the fair's success to the fact that it continually evolves and she credits the "same marvelous people that keep coming back from year to year," eventually introducing their children to the tradition of the fair.

Throughout the evolution of the fair, its promise to the public has remained the same: there will always be new excitements in the agricultural, traditional and environmental aspects of Maine.

New participant Julie Hollinger, from Virginia Beach, said she absolutely loved the atmosphere.

"I like how people want to work with the earth and be environmentally friendly," she said.

Hollinger can be described as an example of the fact that no matter where you come from, the fair is common ground to meet new people, gather new ideas and continue to expand minds. Quite simply, it is not to be missed.

Faith Diaz, originally born in Bronx, N.Y., is from a military family and has spent most of her childhood moving from place to place. Currently, she is a sophomore at Unity College majoring in environmental writing and media. Upon graduation, she intends to go to graduate school in hopes of becoming an editor and author. Her favorite things include: writing, ice cream and chameleons.