Bloomsburg Fair
Bloomsburg, PA (2024)
I look forward to the Bloomsburg Fair the way that children look forward to Christmas. It's a place that I have fond memories throughout my life. My grandparents brought me here in my childhood, I came here with my friends as a teenager, and I've been going to the fair with my wife every year since we started dating when I was in my mid 20's. It's a pleasant escape filled with food, animals, games, music, and interesting surprises to discover.
Safari Sam and Oscar The Awesome Ostrich were wandering making fairgoers laugh. We saw them in the Agricultural Building last year, and they had us and everyone who saw them smiling. I don't know how this costume works, but it's pretty impressive. The ostrich can speak, blink, turn its head, and interact with other people. Whoever designed this did a hell of a job!
We didn't visit any of the historical buildings on the grounds this year, but they were open with volunteers present to answer questions.
We did make it a point to come back to the Steinmetz Family Farm tent though. We discovered this place for the first time last year and fell in love with all of the baby goats. Goats are one of my favorite animals, probably second only to dogs, and for some reason they always seem to really like me as much as I like them. These two snuggled and nuzzled me for a while, while a different one that I didn't get a picture of nearly fell asleep in my lap.
If you go to the Bloomsburg Fair, I highly recommend paying these folks a visit. It costs five dollars to come in to pet several dozen playful baby goats. You can also adopt two baby goats for $100. I'm not using the word "adopt" as an abstract concept here... I mean they will let you take home two baby goats for $100 and keep them forever. They're pigmy goats, so they only get to be about as big as a medium sized dog, and they're actually not all that difficult or expensive to care for. The only catch is that you have to take at least two of them because they are social animals, and they will check up to make sure that you're adopting them to be your pet. I'm not gonna lie, we thought about it, but I don't think that little Harvey would adjust well at his age to two rambunctious goats moving in on his turf.
Avian Flu has put a stop to the chickens and roosters in the animal buildings for the second consecutive year, but there were plenty of rabbits.
We had every intention of checking out the other animal buildings as well, but time got away from us and we ended up missing a few of them. That kind of thing happens pretty easily at the Bloomsburg Fair. It's so big and there's so much going on that you have to plan out a schedule if you want to see it all.
