MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—A timeless summer classic has returned to Orange County as the 175th Orange County Fair opened July 22. Running through Aug. 2 at the Orange County Fairgrounds, the fair offers music, motor events, lots of chances to get up close to domestic and exotic animals, a midway, and other attractions.
Local talent is featured on the Community Concert Stage with the NY Retro Rockers Band, the Middletown Theatre, the HV Irish Club, the Port Jervis Theatre Camp, and Warwick School of Rock.
Highlights at the Grandstand include motorcycle and stock car races, and the Middletown Auto Wreckers demolition derby.
This year at the John Lusardi Music Pavilion, there will be free concerts by Will Hoppey, the Jeremy Langdale Band, and the Tex-Mex group Grupo Fuerza Real. Little Sparrow will perform folk and bluegrass, and the Brian Dougherty Band will play rock & roll.
Regulars of the fair fondly recall how through the 1980s and well into the ‘90s, it hosted the “Westwood One & Pepsi Concert Series,” featuring some of the biggest names in the music industry every summer. Some of the music acts that appeared through the years included Crosby, Stills & Nash, Huey Lewis and The News, Rick Springfield, Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks, and Aerosmith.
Patrick Clancy’s Jungle Habitat Indoor Safari, based in Tennessee, is an animal rescue organization. Clancy said, “[The fair is] a way that we can get out to the public and lend a hand to help animals and to have people really appreciate what we do.”
Jungle Habitat will have a petting zoo with sheep, goats, and llamas, a parakeet counter, and pony rides. This year it has the Kangaroo Experience where fairgoers can see kangaroos and “you can even get your picture taken with one.” This is its eighth year at the fair.
