Bonner County Fair is a go

2020 fair events slated for Aug. 19-22

By Lyndsie Kiebert
Reader Staff

The 2020 Bonner County Fair will showcase the best of the community’s animals, projects and garden bounty from Wednesday, Aug. 19 through Saturday, Aug. 22.

Young fairgoers cool off at the wash racks behind the cattle barn at the 2018 Bonner County Fair. Photo by Roseanne Decker.

The fair will also play host to its traditional events: the concert — this year featuring the Miah Kohal Band and Devon Wade Band — on Aug. 20; the Challenge of Champions Bull Riding on Aug. 21; and the Demolition Derby on Aug. 22. All of those main events will take place in the outdoor arena, with gates opening at 6:30 p.m. and the action starting at 7:30 p.m. each night.

Featured contests throughout the 2020 Bonner County Fair include best beard, a cast iron skillet throwing competition, a mac ’n’ cheese cookoff and more. 

A full schedule of those contests and more can be found online at bonnercountyfair.com or inside the fair book.

Fair Director Darcey Smith said organizers will be taking precautions in response to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic. She said volunteers will be given masks and gloves, hand washing and sanitizing stations will be provided, and visitors are encouraged to wear face coverings.

“We recommend but will not require Fair patrons to wear masks,” Smith wrote in a COVID-19 update on the fair’s website. “Coming to the Fair is your decision, please plan to stay home if you are feeling sick or have been in contact with someone who has been sick.”

As for her favorite thing about the annual celebration of all Bonner County has to offer, Smith said she loves to watch people of all ages take part in fair activities.

“I love seeing the kiddos get excited about what they see in the display cases and the animals in the barns,” she said, “but my guilty pleasure is the Demolition Derby. There is something about grown adults fixing up cars for the sole purpose of destroying them in front of a crowd that I find absolutely fantastic.”

The Bonner County Fair buildings, vendors and barns are open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. each fair day. Learn more at bonnercountyfair.com.

While we have you ...

... if you appreciate that access to the news, opinion, humor, entertainment and cultural reporting in the Sandpoint Reader is freely available in our print newspaper as well as here on our website, we have a favor to ask. The Reader is locally owned and free of the large corporate, big-money influence that affects so much of the media today. We're supported entirely by our valued advertisers and readers. We're committed to continued free access to our paper and our website here with NO PAYWALL - period. But of course, it does cost money to produce the Reader. If you're a reader who appreciates the value of an independent, local news source, we hope you'll consider a voluntary contribution. You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.

You can contribute at either Paypal or Patreon.

Contribute at Patreon Contribute at Paypal

You may also like...

Close [x]

Want to support independent local journalism?

The Sandpoint Reader is our town's local, independent weekly newspaper. "Independent" means that the Reader is locally owned, in a partnership between Publisher Ben Olson and Keokee Co. Publishing, the media company owned by Chris Bessler that also publishes Sandpoint Magazine and Sandpoint Online. Sandpoint Reader LLC is a completely independent business unit; no big newspaper group or corporate conglomerate or billionaire owner dictates our editorial policy. And we want the news, opinion and lifestyle stories we report to be freely available to all interested readers - so unlike many other newspapers and media websites, we have NO PAYWALL on our website. The Reader relies wholly on the support of our valued advertisers, as well as readers who voluntarily contribute. Want to ensure that local, independent journalism survives in our town? You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.