Weekend Update: Sept. 14-16

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this weekend at the fairgrounds. That’s because, we’re hosting the 31st annual Greek Festival. After more than 30 years, the cultural festival long been a Raleigh tradition. If you’ve never been, you can look forward to authentic Greek food and pastries, cooking demonstrations, music and dancing and a Greek marketplace. The festival is open Friday from 5 to 10 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for seniors and teens ages 13-19, and free for children…

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Varsity Vocal Showcase kicks off Dorton Concerts

My first exposure to a cappella, like many people my age, was a little singing group named Rockapella on a PBS game show called Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Carmen Sandiego always managed to escape, but the theme song was forever stuck in my head thanks to the amazing vocals of Rockapella. Flash forward 20 years and shows like The Sing Off and Glee are exposing even more people to the fun and entertainment of a cappella. The first-ever Varsity Vocal Showcase presented by Mattress Firm is our way of highlighting some of the amazing voices here in…

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90 days away

The 2012 N.C. State Fair starts 90 days from today. To get you excited about the Bumper Crop of Fun coming in October, we thought we’d share this really cool video from the 1970s. It’s part of N.C. State University’s digitization project called Cultivating a Revolution: Science, Technology, and Change in North Carolina Agriculture, 1950-1979. The video is aerial footage of the fair circa 1973. In the video, you can see construction of the Kerr Scott Building (site of this weekend’s Raleigh Coin Club and Stamp Show), the old livestock buildings and the racetrack, which is now the site of…

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Fan-selected press office challenge: Milk a cow

Last week, we asked our social media friends to suggest Fair topics they would like to see covered on the blog. We picked winners over the weekend, and will be posting our responses to their challenges this week. I took up Jessica’s challenge to milk a cow at the N.C. State animal science club booth in the Expo Center. I’ve never milked a cow at the Fair before, so I was a little nervous going into the booth, but the N.C. State students on duty offered me some tips. Here’s how it went: Note: If video doesn’t appear, try refreshing…

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