There’s a frenzy at the Fair

Maybe it’s the funny names like “Hamina Biscuit” or “Pepto the Flying Pig,” or maybe it’s how high school students are able to create one-of-a-kind pieces of art using recycled materials. Either way, Farm Animal Frenzy is one of my favorite parts of the Fair. In the contest, schools had a month to transform a recycled pickle barrel into a common barnyard animal. In addition to the pickle-barrel base, each animal had to be created with 80 percent recycled material. An assortment of  seventeen cows, chickens, turkeys, goats, horses, pigs and sheep rolled into Dorton Arena for judging, and the…

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Animals from Farm Animal Frenzy have new homes

Five fiberglass animals that competed in the N.C. State Fair’s Farm Animal Frenzy have new homes. All five pieces were sold to North Carolina buyers in an auction that ended yesterday. The items add a total of $1,521.58 to state coffers. “We had quite a bit of bidding for these pieces so it was fun to finally get to open the bids and see who bought them,” said State Surplus Property Officer Robert Riddle. “We hope everyone enjoys them … .” Riddle said the three 6½-foot-tall chickens and a life-size cow and horse each averaged about 50 bids, ranging from…

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Five 2008 Farm Animal Frenzy animals are up for auction

If you’ve ever had a hankering to own one of the fiberglass animals that competed in the 2008 Farm Animal Frenzy contest at the N.C. State Fair, now’s your chance. The State Surplus Property Agency is accepting online bids for five animals (a cow, horse and three chickens) until Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 1 p.m. (You don’t have to bid on all five.) You can register to bid here. The animals were decorated by high school art students as part of the Fair’s annual Farm Animal Frenzy art contest. They were on display at the 2008 State Fair, and though…

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Fuquay-Varina High School wins People’s Choice Award in Farm Animal Frenzy contest

Fuquay-Varina High School’s “Sleepy Sheepy” won the People’s Choice Award in the 2009 Farm Animal Frenzy competition at the N.C. State Fair. “Sleepy Sheepy” received 505 votes in online polling, outdistancing Durham School of the Arts’ “Raul the Rooster,” which placed second with 426 votes. Fuquay-Varina’s entry had garnered an honorable mention in the judges’ competition, but proved to be the most popular with the public. As the PCA winner, the high school gets bragging rights for the next year. Below is the high school’s description of its winning entry. Sleepy Sheepy has just finished eating jam from his JAM…

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And the Farm Animal Frenzy winner is…

… “Franny La Poulet” from Durham’s Cresset Christian Academy! Franny is a five-foot-tall chicken covered with interwoven plastic shopping bags to create the look and color of feathers. Her eyes are old slide projectors bulbs, and her beak and feet are covered with paper mache newspaper. Franny is sporting a bow, glittery eyelashes made from plastic spoons and toenails made from plastic caps. At night, this “green” farm animal creation will glow from the three solar lights placed inside. She was created by the school’s AP art class. As part of the first-place honors, Cresset Christian Academy art students will receive $1,000 for…

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Deep Fried Ambassador debut

Our first Deep Fried Ambassador, Suzanne from the Pretty*Swell blog, will kick off her official duties this afternoon when she live-blogs and tweets from our pre-Fair media lunch. Follow @swell_mama on Twitter to see her thoughts on some of the brand new deep-fried foods, entertainers, Farm Animal Frenzy contestants and more. We’ll also be unveiling another new Fair food that will debut at the media lunch, just like last year’s deep-fried pecan pie and deep-fried mac’n’cheese. Stay tuned!

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High School Art Classes + Farm Animals = “A Whole Lotta Green”

For a couple of years, we’ve had a crazy competition for high school art classes called the Farm Animal Frenzy. In the past, each school was given a large, fiberglass farm animal to decorate, and compete to see which farm animal best fits the current State Fair theme. Over time, we inherited a large collection of eclectic farm animals because some schools couldn’t take back their creation after the Fair for one reason or another. Being the resourceful people that we are, we have found other interesting ways to use these animals, such as in certain videos, but quickly realized that we would have a…

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Frenzy of a good time

One thing I love about the Farm Animal Frenzy competition is the reaction from the crowd. Whether we are at the mall or at the fairgrounds, people are drawn to these animals. All of the farm animals (19 total) were dropped off at the fairgrounds yesterday and getting them put in their proper places was number one on the list of things to do today. This is a time-consuming task that takes four or five people about four hours to complete. Before we got started, all the animals were set in one place and there was a steady stream of…

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Take Time for the Frenzy

“Sancta Bos” by Cresset Christian Academy in Durham Take a stroll around Triangle Town Center and you’ll run into some strange looking characters. “Miss Moo,” “Dali,” “Javier,” and “Merlin” are just a few of the cows, chickens and horses that have overtaken the mall as part of the N.C. State Fair Farm Animal Frenzy. “Playin’ Hooky” by Garner Magnet High School I was there Saturday morning with the judges to make sure everything was in place and had the chance to get a good look at all the animals. Last year’s entries into the first-ever Farm Animal Frenzy were going…

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