County Fair is a long-standing Parker tradition of sugar highs, cotton candy, roller skates, and fun. However, County Fair does not appear out of nowhere. Weeks of meetings, meticulous planning, and hard work go into every part of the event each year by the sophomore class. This year’s class has taken a different approach to planning this cherished Parker tradition.
The planning for County Fair starts in the spring when the County Fair heads and theme are chosen. Sophomore grade heads Brianna Ifft and Xiao Zhang send out an anonymous survey to collect possible themes. Once the theme is selected, the grade heads send out an application for the heads of the County Fair committees. Ifft said over half of the grade applied to head a committee.
The next phase of planning comes in the summer when vendors are contacted and orders are placed. “County Fair is primarily run by the students, with some oversight and help from the grade heads,” Ifft said. “However, communicating with the vendors is one of the things that we have to do.”
Last year Zhang and Ifft were new grade heads so it was their first time planning a County Fair and Ifft called it “one of the hardest things to do as a sophomore grade head at Parker.”
Most of the work with the students comes in the fall. “We will be meeting with the committee heads every week to go over all of the details, ” Ifft said. The committees are run by students and they each focus on one of the aspects of the County Fair. There are six different committees with a total of 14 student committee leaders.
Committees include the MX Skit Committee, which organizes all the different grades’ skits. Another committee, the Music Stage and Creating Mixes Committee, runs the audiovisuals for County Fair. The Communications and Logistics Committee helps coordinate each grade’s booth. There is also a Decorations and Advertising Committee and the County Fair MX Committee. The last committee, the 10th grade Booth Committee, runs their booths.
“I am an MX Skit Committee head,” sophomore Paige Randell said. “I’m excited about the County Fair this year, not only because I’m a committee head but because I had a great experience last year.” She was new to Parker last year and appreciated the chance to take a leadership role.
“No matter if someone is a committee head or not, all of the sophomores have a huge role to play in County Fair,” Ifft said. The sophomores are responsible for all setup and breakdown of the event, as well as coordinating with everyone except the vendors. “The merch is even inspired by designs that some chosen sophomores put forward,” Ifft said. Student volunteers submit possible merchandise designs to Dominic Saracino, the Director of Communications, which he takes and combines into an image for the manufacturers to print onto the t-shirts and sweatshirts.
Parker sophomores have been putting on County Fair for quite a long time, however, not every class runs it the same way. “As a committee head, I plan on doing some things differently than last year. Last year the committee skits were not very on-theme, and that is something that I would love to change this year,” Randell said. Randell also happened to be one of the creators of this year’s theme, Candyland. “I thought that Candyland would be good because it is something that can be enjoyed universally and not just by high school students. Last year’s theme was retro, and even though that was not a bad theme, I am not sure people could really connect to it the way I am hoping they will to Candyland,” Randell said.
“I wonder if I will think back on County Fair when I am a junior or senior because, even though I have only experienced it once, it was still a great experience,” Randell said. Junior Annoshae Mirza, expects it will be. “Running County Fair was a pretty ethereal experience after having experienced it for so many years. I was pleasantly surprised at how much creative control we all got. I feel like every sophomore had a bit of say in the process and it was just a really positive experience,” Mirza said.
County Fair will always have some surprises, and things that make it different from the previous year, however, it will always stay the time-honored tradition that the Parker community holds so near and dear to its heart.
