Demolition Derby

LANCASTER - The Garrard County Fair starts Saturday and runs through July 3 at the fairgrounds on U.S. 27 eight miles north of Lancster. Admission is $7 and includes rides and events. Here's the schedule: Saturday 5 p.m.: Hunt/Western Horse Show, horse ring. Sunday 5 p.m.: Pleasure Horse Show, horse ring. Monday 7 p.m.: Back seat driving contest, horse ring. 8 p.m.: Motorcycle drags, motor sport track. Tuesday 7 p.m.: Dog show training session, show ring.

The Lexington Lions Club Bluegrass Fair at Masterson Station Park opened this past Thursday with a focus on great family entertainment. This year's fair features over 75 state fair rides, games, carnival midway attractions and free daily entertainment. There will also be homegrown competitions, live bands, food, and motor sport action. New this year is the "Ride the Rail", a wakeboard stunt and thrill water show, with three shows every night. The new air-conditioned Expo Center features up to 7,000 square feet of indoor exhibit space for local vendors.

HARRODSBURG - About 60 goats will be on sale Saturday at the Fort Harrod Goat Association at the Mercer County Fairgrounds Saturday. The goats on sale and buyers for those goats are expected from all across the state. The goats for sale will be breeding stock and likely to be purchased by goat farmers. One goat farming couple came to Kentucky several years ago, but they were from farther away than Paducah. George and Dyane Duane have made their home on a farm that straddles the Boyle-Mercer County line.

STANFORD - Friends became foes, if only for a few seconds, Wednesday night at the Lincoln County Fair arm wrestling competition. Sydney Folger and Alyssa Gonzalez, both 15, were the only two females signed up in the women's division of the competition. The girls, obviously friends, had no serious strategies for defeating the other. Folger laughed as she said her strategy was to "poke her (Gonzalez) in the eye. " Folger didn't use her strategy, though. After dousing their hands with baby powder, and a brief struggle, Gonzalez was declared the winner.

The 2011 Clark County Fair officially begins Saturday with a parade along Main Street. The annual event will feature a demolition derby, the Miss Clark County Fair Pageant, food, games and a circus. Events will begin at the fairgrounds at 5 p.m. Saturday with the open beef show and will continue through Sunday, Aug. 6. Admission is $10 and includes all games, rides and exhibits. “The biggest thing that's new or different, in entertainment, is we've got the circus that's to be there,” said Clark County Extension Agent Frank Hicks.

Danville police chief Jeff Peek narrowly escaped serious injury Thursday, quickly dodging an oncoming car as he directed traffic outside the Boyle County Fairgrounds. Dressed in plain clothes, Peek was diverting drivers from the closed entrance of the fair to a second entrance north on the bypass. Two vehicles were stopped in the right, north-bound lane, forcing the driver of an approaching Pontiac sedan onto the shoulder to avoid hitting them. The left-hand passing lane was occupied.

LIBERTY - The Casey County Fair Educational and Agricultural Fair is held in June each year at the Central Kentucky Ag/Expo Center. This year, it kicks off at 8 p.m. tonight with the Miss Casey County Fair open pageant for ages 16 to 21. Admission Friday through Sunday is $5; Monday, $8; and Tuesday through June 6, $10. For more information, log on to http://caseycountyfair.com . Admission will be charged at the gate except where noted and is subject to change if necessary.

The annual Jessamine County Fair officially kicked off last Saturday with the Open Jessamine County Horse Show AAA. The fair kicks into high gear beginning Monday when the Kissel Entertainment rides begin at 6 p.m. Fair board president Jay Bruner Jr., said this year's event has a few added wrinkles he feels will be popular. "We're having a pull-off (Tuesday at 7 p.m.) between the two mayors on a pedal tractor," he said. "It's going to be some fun and excitement and some friendly competition in the community.

A Boyle County couple are considering police brutality claims against Mercer County deputies and Harrodsburg officers after an incident at the Mercer County Fair's demolition derby turned ugly July 29. David and Tara Johnson Sosh, of 2565 Quirk's Run Road, maintain that Tara Sosh was wrongly accused of stealing a woman's wallet and that David Sosh was beaten and Maced without cause by officers after he got involved in the questioning of his...

STANFORD - Power was the name of the game Wednesday at the Lincoln County fair. Whether doing donuts on a dirt track before the Power Wheels Derby race of your life, or flinging thick balls of red clay mud in the stands at the Demolition Derby, it took something a little extra, a little above the rest, to make it a winning night at the derby. Gavin Crain, of Stanford, is only 4 but he has a power button on his Harley Power Wheels bike and he knows when to use it. He's never fallen off, he said proudly, sporting a dragon tattoo that was already starting to peel.