Watch the butter cow being scultpted
by Esther Schindler
...Using 500 pounds of unsalted butter, at the Illinois State Fair. This webcam (and others less interesting) available at their site.
Are State Fairs purely an American thing? They're certainly fun, though I confess I haven't been to the Arizona State Fair (held in October, we're no fools) in years.
Comments
I haven't actually been to the AZ State Fair, but have heard about it from a good friend of ours who lived in N. Laurel Ave near Encanto.
I know it's not quite the same, but isn't the "Bavarian State Fair" in Germany called the Oktoberfest?
;-)
canada has them too, we simply call them country or county fairs (not nearly as elaborate as this illinois state fair though); typically, they still award blue ribbons for the best apple pie, the best cow, the biggest pig, the beauty pageant for miss county 2003, and everybody gets piss drunk
fun eh?
Does Oktoberfest have events that aren't beer related?
Lots of rides. And any other attraction you will find at this kind ...
Actually, the Oktoberfest originally had nothing particularly to do with beer - it was the wedding party for Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria.
The big happening was at the end - they had a horse race, which was so much fun, they re-ran it the following year too - that was how it started (in 1810). Obviously beer plays a big part now, but there is also a huge fair with all sorts of big dippers, ghost trains, dodgems and so on and lots of stalls selling local food specialities.
