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Bedford County Fair:

Celebrating our rural roots

ounty fairs have been in existence for hundreds of years, starting Charlotte Bussell is vice president of the board. Michele Murray is the
in Europe as a place for people to come together and compare secretary and Matt Ledbetter is the treasurer.
Ctheir livestock and crops with each other to help identify superior Gambill also serves as chairman of the board of directors. The other
genetics. members of the board are Chris Bussell, Christy Davis, Fred Pimental,
Making sure a county fair remains vital to the community is not an easy Christine Pyrdom, Karl Pyrdom, Karl Pyrdom, Jr., Jerri Lynn Smith, Tyler
task. Judy Gambill serves as president of the Fair Association of Bedford Thomas, Jamie Robinson and Carter Woodruff.
County. She and the board of directors are already hard at work preparing Board members serve three-year terms, but can be re-elected.
for the 21st annual event scheduled for July 23 through July 28. The theme “Carter has been here since the beginning,” Gambill said. “We had
is “Carnival Lights and Country Nights.” 22 members to start the fair back in 1998. He is the only one of those
“We used to be able to plan the fair in three or four months,” Gambill founding members who is still on the board.”
said. “Now it is year round. There is so much to do to get ready for the The fair won awards in three categories in state contests at the Tennessee
fair – signs have to be put up, water has to be brought in, bleachers have to Association of Fairs this year with a first place in quilts, second in the
be set up, there has to be a water hook-up for the carnival and the poultry fair catalog competition and third in the best flyer contest. The fair also
and livestock areas have to be ready. received a Merit Award for the number of premiums paid to contestants in
“In addition to the board we have 50 more volunteers who work various competitions.
themselves to death out in the heat during the fair. We could not do this
without them.”

Micayla Hickman from
Smyrna gives Skids a
bath in preparation
for the 2017 Bedford
County Fair. Hick-
man had eight cows
in the fair last year.
Skids showed in the
Fall Yearling Class.
She got her name
last year after the fair
because she was so
skittish, Hickman said.
For more information
call the fair office at
(931) 684-0760 or go
online to bedford-
countytnfair.org. TG
photo by Terence
Corrigan

22 Bedford Life l Summer 2018