Fair & Festival Glossary
Plain-English definitions of real fair and festival terminology, from lumberjack competitions to the midway.
- agricultural fairA multi-day fair built around livestock, produce and home-craft judging, often with a midway attached.
- midwayThe rides, games and concession strip at a fair, usually run by a travelling carnival company.
- grandstandThe covered seating that faces a fair's main arena or track, where the headline events run.
- exhibition hallThe indoor building where judged non-livestock entries are displayed with their ribbons.
- 4-HThe national youth development program whose members show animals and projects at fairs.
- showmanshipA judged class where the handler is evaluated, not the animal.
- premium bookA fair's official catalog of competition classes, entry rules, deadlines and prize money.
- pullingA weight-hauling contest, run with draft animals or with vehicles, on a measured course.
- juried craft fairA craft fair where a panel screens work for admission rather than selling booths to all applicants.
- Old Home DayA town homecoming celebration that began in New Hampshire in 1899.
- the greenA town's central public lawn, and the usual venue for a New England outdoor fair.
- leaf peepingTravelling to see autumn foliage, and the name New Englanders give the visitors who do it.
- fried doughA flat sheet of fried yeast dough dusted with sugar or topped savory, the standard New England fair food.
- chowderA thick seafood soup, cream-based in the New England style, and a competition category in its own right.
- lupineThe tall spiked flower that fills northern New Hampshire fields in early summer.
- Granite StateNew Hampshire's state nickname, taken from its granite bedrock and quarrying history.