The Montgomery County Agricultural Fair was canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but on Saturday crowds were happy to be back to the Gaithersburg fairgrounds.
“Basically after a year in the pandemic I thought that we should get out a little bit,” said Claudia Barrera, who was enjoying a funnel cake at the fair on Saturday afternoon.
She was proud of a massive stuffed panda bear she won at a fair game.
“Ten bucks, three balls, got it on the third try so, booyah,” Barrera said.
Ingrid Bostic brought her daughters and their friends for the day.
“They love the rides. I love the food,” Bostic said. “It’s nice to be back. It’s somewhere where you can kind of feel safe because you’re outdoors.”
There were a lot of people enjoying the rides, games and food most of the day, according to Sarah Olsen, a media specialist for the fair.
“Today’s been pretty busy. We have our parking lot ‘Perry Parking’ entrance and there’s quite a few cars there,” Olsen said. “It’s been great. We’re so happy to have people here. The weather has held up nicely and we have the nine best days of summer during our fair.”
Peter Nesin said the fair was a must-go this year for him and his family.
“We couldn’t go last year, which was sad, and I’m going to college in a week — so, I definitely wanted to see the ‘MoCo’ fair before we left,” Nesin said.
The fair, which started in 1945, will operate through Aug. 21.
