From AP…
Jul 29, 5:34 AM EDT
Denver bets on a county fair, aiming at hipsters
By KRISTEN WYATT
Associated Press
DENVER (AP) -- Denver has an ambitious plan to revive the county fair: blend throwback chic with urban grit to draw crowds celebrating everything weird and crafty. Mix funnel cakes with drag queens, add a dash of old-time quilting and newly hip knitting, and the recipe could produce what organizers hope is a new flavor of county fair.
Fair staples like funnel cakes and cotton candy, animal exhibits and 4-H competitions are on proud display at the Denver County Fair; there's even a Ferris wheel in the parking lot.
But there's no mistaking this event for a traditional country fair. All the contestants in Saturday's Miss Denver County Fair pageant are drag queens. There's a speed text-messaging contest, and the highlight staple of a Western fair, a rodeo, has been replaced with a bicycle rodeo and a troupe of performing pigs.
"This is so cool," said 13-year-old Brian Torres of Denver, a first-time fairgoer who saw his first alpaca and planned to check out the carnival rides, just past a "freak show" highlighted by a bearded lady and a man lying on a bed of nails.
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