Category: 2008 N.C. State Fair

Sellin’ ‘backer’

Yesterday at the State Fair, there was a mock tobacco auction. Today, tobacco auctions are extinct, replaced by contracts with tobacco companies. But for more than 150 years, they were THE way N.C. farmers marketed their cured leaf. Retired auctioneers, buyers and warehousemen staged the mock auction in the Expo Center. Today’s fast-talking ad men, the guys who fly through the fine print at the end of those car ads on the radio, have nothing on these auctioneers. They are colorful, lyrical even, and, yes, fast. A crowd of about 50 people gathered to watch these old pros demonstrate how…

Continue Reading

Facebook Videos

You can still score good tickets to tonight’s Joe Nichols concert and tomorrow’s Montgomery Gentry concert, but if you’ve missed out on any of the concerts add us as a friend on Facebook and check out the videos tagged of the Fair. Some of our friends have added footage of the Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum concerts, as well as video of the tractor pulls and pig races. Check it out!

Continue Reading

Feel better soon!

We blogged yesterday that Keith King’s show puts the eXtreme in BMX and FMX. At yesterday’s 4 p.m. show, Freestyle Motorcross stuntman Craig Roberts broke his leg– in half. But, then again, these guys are very tough, as evidenced by the photo Keith posted to our Facebook account. Craig’s flashing the “rock on” gesture and Keith had this caption on the pic: “One of our FMX guys Craig broke his leg …. Well at least he had good looking paramedics….” We hope you recover quickly Craig! We’ll update you on his progress as we hear.

Continue Reading

My experience interning with the N.C. State Fair Press Office

Our intern Mallory has been in and out during the Fair’s crazy hours due to something called class, but she’s managed to get a look inside the walls of the State Fair Press Office…and lived to tell about it. I never thought 2008 would be the year I became a intern with the Agriculture Department working in the Press Office of the N.C. State Fair. It has truly been a treat…. well sometimes! With phones ringing off the hook, frantic producers begging for media passes and permits, and best of all the chaotic crowds and odd afternoon snacks, this job…

Continue Reading

TXT-O-LYMPIX

Luckily, our texters will be on their own two feet. Photo from Matthias Bethke. A few months ago we held our first Deep Fried blog contest for texting pros to announce the Fair’s first texting contest. We promised details, and here they are. The TXT-O-LYMPIX (love the name) kicks off tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in the Folk Festival tent, which is near Gate 10 behind our offices, the Kerr Scott Building. You can register Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the entry office inside Gate 11 in the administration office. You’ll be handsomely rewarded for your thumb-nastics: First…

Continue Reading

Keith King’s BMX-treme show

It’s always cool to see local guys go big…and if nothing else, Keith King always goes big. The Durham native is the owner of King BMX Stunt Shows, a new name they recently adopted because of the addition of motorcross stuntmen. Almost of all of these guys have competed in the X Games and it shows–the emcee had a walking boot on his foot from a recent injury. We interviewed Keith a couple times throughout the footage, so check in to see his favorite place to perform and get more insider info on the exciting world of BMX biking.

Continue Reading

Dancin’ fools

We had a blast at Wednesday’s Pants Dance Revolution. The event drew a big crowd around the Waterfall Stage and the Storm Squad, Mike Morse from G105’s Bob and the Showgram and THE Subway guy, Jared Fogle. The contest, which invited people to upload their craziest dance moves in their craziest pants to YouTube, generated almost 10,000 views. The prizes were pretty sweet: A year’s supply of SUBWAY sandwiches, a Nintendo Wii, a Wii Fit game and–drum roll, please–a signed pair of Jared’s size 60 pants. If you didn’t make it out to get a Jared head or enter the…

Continue Reading

BMX legend to perform at Fair today!

You can catch the most decorated BMX biker of all time at the King Action Stunt Sports Show today at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. That would be Greenville resident Dave Mirra, who has won the most gold medals in X Games history and is one of the most popular extreme sports athletes in the world. Mirra’s bike company, MirraCo is the official bike of the King BMX Stunt Show. The King Action Sports Stunt show features top ramp riders as well as flatland riders, and as you can tell from the above photo, they’ve added two motorcross riders for…

Continue Reading