Source: NCDA&CS, 7/1/21

The 2021 State Fair Premium Book is finally here, and this year’s new competitions will certainly prove to have been worth the wait. This year’s State Fair will feature several new competitions open for entries. These new competitions were created in an effort to encourage competition entries as these simpler projects can be completed within weeks rather than some projects that can take up to a whole year.

“Our hope is that these sorts of categories will serve as a gateway to getting people hooked on entering items in the fair. We always need new competitors, and the fair can always use new competitions,” said competitive exhibits director, John Buettner.

In the Home Furnishings Department, the Decorated Tables contest has been replaced by a
Decorated Christmas Tree contest. After registering, exhibitors will be chosen by a raffle and will be notified by phone and email on Sept. 16 if they were selected to participate in the contest.

The N.C. State Fair will furnish tree stands and four-to-six-foot live trees for exhibitors to
decorate. Trees will be judged based on creativity, overall design, and theme conformance.

“Since North Carolina is one of the primary Christmas tree growing states, we thought it would be nice to include decorated trees as a category,” said Buettner.

Planted Wheelbarrows have been added to the Flower Show, which is the largest competition at the fair with over 11,650 entries. The Planted Wheelbarrows contest will have adult, youth and special needs divisions. Extra wheelbarrows will be available the week prior to the fair if a gardener needs one.

In the Handicrafts and Hobbies Department, Painted Rocks and Decorated Footwear have been added. The Painted Rocks contest is part of the Decorative Painting category. Rocks must be one pound or less. Contestants can use any type of rock, any type of paint and use any type of technique. There will be four classes of Painted Rocks: Mandala Design, Message Design, Single Color Design and Plants/Animals.

For Decorated Footwear, contestants can decorate either asingle shoe or a pair of shoes. The footwear does not need to function as a shoe; however, pairs must be matching in design.

The Decorated Footwear category will also feature a Decorated Sock contest for children and participants with special needs to turn a sock into a stuffed toy.

Display space is limited for each of these contests, so it is requested that all entries be small.

There will also be several “walk-up” competitions taking place in Dorton Arena that do not
require registration. These competitions are designed for children and will include activities such as cookie stacking, rubber chicken flinging, cookie decorating, sugar cube building and team cake decorating.

Important dates to note for competitions are as follows:
July 1 – N.C. State Fair Competition Premium Books launch containing all rules and
regulations for general contests and competitions as well as livestock competitions.

August 1 – Entry registration opens.

September 15 – Deadline for entry registration. Online entry forms are due at midnight
while walk-in paper forms are due at 5:00 pm. Mailed in paper forms must be postmarked
on or before September 15 to be eligible.

More information about this year’s new competitions can be found at ncstatefair.org. The 2021 N.C. State Fair runs Oct. 14-24 at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.