Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The Quay County Fair in Tucumcari resumes this week as it has for more than a century in Tucumcari, but this will be the third straight year it will lack a carnival.
The fair on the city’s west side didn’t have a carnival in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions, and other fair events also were curtailed during that time.
Justin Knight, vice president of the fair board, said the fair’s previous carnival vendor, Arizona-based Sun Valley Rides, usually plans its schedule a year in advance.
“We did not get him booked,” Knight said. “We couldn’t have him during our COVID period due to the governor’s rules, so they already booked at other fairs.”
Dallas Dowell, fair board president, said Sun Valley had a conflict with another fair, “and it was a little late to be changing our dates at that point. We’d already hired judges and et cetera.”
Dowell said he was hopeful a carnival would return to the Quay County Fair in 2023.
“We sure would like to have a carnival next year. It gets a lot more people to the fair, and it makes it more complete,” he said. “If Sun Valley can’t do it, we’ll be looking for somebody else.”
Last year, the Quay County Fair allowed livestock exhibitors age 6, 7 and 8 years old for the first time in an effort to boost lagging numbers overall. Six livestock exhibitors in that age range participated.
Pam Slater, treasurer of the fair board, said last week that four exhibitors are 6 to 8 years old in this year’s fair.
The fair’s overall livestock exhibitor numbers continue to slide. A total of 49 showed animals last year. That total is 43 this year, Slater said.
Drought conditions have wracked the region for two years, but Dowell said he doubted that was the reason for fewer exhibitors at the fair.
“It’s the sign of the times, maybe,” he said. “There’s just less people who live in the country and less people that have places to keep animals.”
The fair opens at 5 p.m. Wednesday with the shepherd’s lead show, then the swine show starting at 6.
The sheep and goat showmanship clinic begins at 10 a.m. Thursday, with the main goat and lamb shows starting a 6 p.m. that day.
On Friday, the rabbit show begins at 9 a.m., with the poultry show at 11 a.m. The steer and heifer showmanship clinic is at 1 p.m., with a watermelon feed from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The main heifer and steer shows begin at 5 p.m.
Saturday, which is Family Day, includes an Itty Bitty Rodeo at 11 a.m., a pet parade at noon, at horseshoe pitching contest at 1 p.m. and a quarter chase at 1:30 p.m. The typical highlight of the fair and closing event is the Junior Livestock Sale, which begins at 6 p.m.