Competitions at the Fair
Folk Festival
The folk festival hosted the largest gathering of amateur folk talent
in North Carolina. During the 10 days, more than 1,500 performers
competed for more than $1,000 in prizes.

    Practicing for the competiton
    Tiffany Hall (right), and Canaan Sewell (middle) of the Silver Heel Cloggers, warm up their taps just before the first show on Sunday, Oct. 27. Mandy Myer (left) of the Longbranch Dancers checks out the competition

practice

Two contestants give each other a good luck squeeze before they perform.

    Judging at the Fair
    Audrey Perry marks her opinon of the Silver Heel Cloggers. Perry has been a judge of the Folk Festival since 1983. The other two judges this year were Sam and Virginia Young.

Cooking Contests

Spam Can
"The National 'Best SPAM' Recipe Competition was one of nine sponsored cooking contests at the fair. On Wednesday, one local winner was selected to enter the National "Best SPAM Recipe" competition. Among the entries this year were SPAM stuffed peppers, SPAM casserole and a SPAM dip.
Game Booths

Although many people may not label the game booths competitions, there is, in reality, a competition happening between the player and the game. Additionally, for the people working in the booths, there is a competitionbetween the mselves to get people to play.

(Right)Martin Brant, or "DJ" as he likes to be called, is a 21-year-old "carny" who has worked at fairs since he was 16. Although he admits that the long hours, constant traveling and low wages "get old" after awhile, he says that he wouldn't havebeen able to see the country any other way.

dj

Brandon McDowell, 12, of Durham, after exclaiming "This is easy," misses every throw.



dj&girls

(Below) All of his earnings are based on commision (he gets 10% of all that he makes), so the more people play, the more he earns.



Photos by Erin Beach and Brian Whttier

Video by Jennifer Fox

Audio by Jesma Reynolds and Diane Toomey