FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas – The 81st Fort Bend County Fair is officially underway. It started this morning with a parade through Richmond and Rosenberg.
An estimated 20,000 people came out to experience the street festivities and to support the children in the community.
“Serving youth today for a better tomorrow is our theme this year and it couldn’t be more appropriate, especially after the tragic events that these kids have been through,” said Ernest Lawson, president of the Fort Bend County Fair.
The fair features the many animals that children have been raising for the last year.
“They had to evacuate them, find them a place to go. If they didn't’t have to evacuate them, they had to find somebody that was staying behind to take care of the feeding and the responsibilities of raising that animal and then they also had to find feed. There was no stores open,” Lawson said. of how the children coped with caring for their animals after Hurricane Harvey struck the area.
“His name’s Cojo, after the singer Cody Johnson,” said Karleigh Schlicht of her goat.
Schlicht is a sophomore in high school and this is her second year of showing goats.
During Harvey, she was forced to evacuate from her home, but fortunately, Cojo's barn was on higher ground. Now the two are ready for the fair.
“It’s, like, the time of your life. Like, it’s really fun and you see everybody you know here and it’s just a great experience,” Schlicht said.
Of course, there's also the carnival and all the food.
“You have to either buy bigger clothes or you have to start shedding a little pounds before the fair gets to town,” Lawson said.
“What we have here is an individual serving of pecan pie and he is going to dip it in the funnel cake batter and it is going to go straight into the fryer,” said Penny Campbell, of Roger Westmoreland Concessions.
The battered and fried pecan pie, along with a similarly assembled Moon Pie, are among the new fried treats this year.
“And on that pecan pie, we give it a little caramel drizzle,” Campbell said.
Turn that drizzle chocolate for the Moon Pie.
The fair runs for 10 days and includes rodeo and music events in addition to all the other festivities.
