Georgia National Fair has something for everyone, everything for some

PERRY – The Himalaya is a ride at the fair. It twists, turns, climbs, grinds and delivers a few other thrills and chills against a snowy backdrop.   

But, if you really want it to take you to the top of Mount Everest, you will have to use your imagination. 

After all, you are in a giant field on the south side of Perry. The sun is beating down. It is 83 degrees. The first week of October has failed to chase away all the gnats.  

Welcome to the Georgia National Fair, the equivalent of one-stop shopping for your spirit. More than a half-million people come here every October to eat, drink and be merry. They arrive curious about the cows, stay to soak in the scenery and don’t leave until they’ve tapped their toes to the music. 

There is something for everyone … and everything for some.

Barnyard smells and sugar highs. Blue ribbons and candy red apples. Fireworks and a Ferris wheel, of course, just as there has been at every fair since the dawn of time.

There are tastes to thrill and common scents you haven’t experienced since the last time you walked through those turnstiles. There are spicy sniffs from the kiosks and smoky temptations from the food trucks on the midway.

Where else can you munch on funnel cakes and nibble on an elephant ear in the same afternoon? Or have pickles on your pizza? Where else can you clutch a pretzel the size of Alabama and chow down – or is it chew down – on salt water taffy?

And don’t forget to check out jumbo turkey legs. You don’t have to eat one but at least have a look. They now cost a whopping $20.  There are those of us old enough to remember when you could buy a butterball at Thanksgiving for the same sticker price.  

You don’t have to be a seasoned veteran of the fair to realize it never is a single event but thousands of unscripted sideshows  being played out at the same time.

There is joy in arching your neck to see a man and woman on 10-foot stilts stooping through a door to the delight of children. There is nostalgia  hearing the voices of the carnival barkers (carnies), begging for a chance to guess your age or weight. 

You can show off your aim by popping a balloon with a dart. You can amaze your friends by breaking a plate with a baseball to win a stuffed animal. With the proper amount of peer pressure, you can toss a ping pong ball into a bowl and take home a goldfish … that probably won’t survive the ride up I-75.

At the fair, you can watch a 4-year-old child enveloped by a giant bubble at the Amazing Bubble Factory. You can root for a 7-year-old kid trying to hold on for dear life while riding a frisky sheep at the mutton-bustin’ competition. 

You can check out a menagerie of sea lions, baby chicks, slithering snakes,  horses and a petting zoo of exotic critters. You can strike a pose next to the empty cage with the sign that says “Invisible Rabbit.’’  

You can step next door and catch Robinson’s Racing Pigs, who have been an attraction at all 35 Perry fairs. These famous pigs circle the track sporting names like Britney Spare Ribs and Taylor Not So Swift. They have entire cheering sections assigned to them in the bleachers. Some of them dive into a 24-foot pool, proving pigs may not fly but some of them can swim. The winner gets an Oreo and attempts to avoid eye contact with any food vendor serving pulled pork.

No local fair would be complete without dropping by for one Mike Fuller’s magic shows. The 71-year-old Macon magician has razzled and dazzled for 34 years in the shadows of the clock tower. The only program at the fair with a longer run are the pigs.

Fuller routinely makes rabbits appear and doves disappear.  He runs his sleight of hand over a deck of cards and plucks coins from behind the ears of children. For his final act at a recent performance, he convinced a young lady to stick her head in a guillotine. Everyone in the crowd assumed she would survive. But it’s human nature to stick around to see if there will be a curtain call.

If you go to the fair – and I hope you do – I have three pieces of advice.

Wear comfortable shoes.

Take a photo on your phone of where you park your car so you won’t be wandering looking for it … like I did.

And, if you see somebody without a smile, give them one of yours. There should be plenty to go around.

Ed Grisamore has been a journalist in Macon for more than 45 years. He is the author of nine books and received the 2024 John Holliman Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.