Food, Fun, & Family at Island Fair
Make it hearty, make it hot, but make sure it’s ready by 11 am on Saturday, September 13, when Island Fair judges will determine which chili is Nantucket’s best at the first ever ACK Chili Contest.
Entry forms can be picked up in advance at the Park and Recreation office on Bathing Beach Road, or they can be filled out at the fairgrounds at the Tom Nevers Navy Base when the entry is delivered. Prizes will be awarded for first, second, and third place and several recipes will be noted with designations as honorable mentions. Merchants donating prizes include Nantucket Gourmet, Easy Street Cantina, Bookworks, Stephanie’s, and Margaret Hallowell.
The Fair, which is held every September, offers island residents a chance to reconnect with friends and neighbors and allows visitors to experience island life outside of the Nantucket resort gloss.
This weekend—Saturday, September 13 and Sunday, September 14—the fair will offer live music, animals, rides, contests, crafts, and food from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and from 11 am to 4 pm on Sunday. Admission is free with a $10 parking fee per vehicle.
A flea market featuring work by many local artisans will be open at the fair, featuring a dozen or more craftspeople with widely varied offerings that include knitted items, antiques, collectibles, jewelry, artwork, and apparel.
Local produce, jams, jellies, pickles, sauces, baked goods, quilts, rugs, needlepoint, crafts of any type, and local farm local animals will displayed and judged. All entries for the blue ribbon contests must be at the fair by 9:30 am on Saturday morning. If there’s enough room, last-minute crafts, jams, and vegetables will be welcomed.
Tie-dying will be back again this year. The tie-dying is free for those who bring their own article of clothing; t-shirts that can be tie-dyed will be available for purchase at the table for $5. Children will also be able to play the Pumpkin Toss game, get their faces painted, jump in the “moon bounce,” and participate in the pony rides offered both days. Parents can take their youngsters on the free hay rides.
One of the favorite fair events is the annual Pumpkin Contest. Paul Michetti, whose pumpkins won in 1998, 1999, and 2000, won the contest again last fall with a pumpkin that weighed in at over 430 pounds. Michetti will be out of state during this year’s fair, but another frequent winner, Ray Owen, has several pumpkins that will be hard to beat. Other fierce competitors have included Marcus Goulding, Tom McGuiness, Vincent Goulding, and Chris Iller, although fair organizers never know exactly who will show up at the fair with a pumpkin to enter until the deadline. Winners get bragging rights and ribbons for the biggest, the smallest, the most photogenic, the most unusual, and an honorable mention. Weigh-in and judging are held Saturday at 12 noon.
At 12:30 pm and again at 2:30 pm on Saturday, Ben Rudnick & Friends will perform their unique style of family friendly music that has been described as “adventurous” and “instantly engaging,” and as having “a unique acoustic sound ranging from light folk to bluegrass, calypso, and rock.”
Sunday, at 11:30 am and again at 2 pm, Derek Johnston, the “Cape Cod Cowboy” will present a show with his talented border collies.
On both days, community groups will sell hot dogs, burgers, sausages, and other goodies, and the Sons of the American Legion will again offer their seafood extravaganza along with corn-on-the-cob.
The fun continues on Sunday with the annual pet show at 1 pm. The show is open to island pets of all shapes and sizes, with ribbons for the furriest, the smallest, the best trick, and many other categories.
