Centre Co., PA (WJAC) — Beginning this week in Centre County is another edition of the Grange Fair.
It's a unique experience for visitors and those camping at the fair as the event, and the fairgrounds, continue to see changes.
The Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair, or Grangers Picnic as it sometimes called, is returning for its 148th year.
“We started in 1874 as an agricultural information gathering and have remained true to those roots to this very day.”
The fair includes close to one thousand, highly sought tent sites, along with close to 1,500 RV'ers, as folks all live in their own little community during the fair.
In recent years, improvements and expansion for the fairgrounds have been made, including more buildings.
Grange Park has become one of the leading showcases for horse and dog shows, and similar exhibitions, on the east coast.
The expansion has also brought more modern-day technology.
“From a technology standpoint, our goal is to ensure a group would have everything they need at Grange Park.”
The fair has always hosted fundraisers, but a recent addition has taken off.
Fair tickets are sold year-round so organizers came up with the idea of fundraising partners, where various community organizations purchase fair tickets through one of the organizations and the money is donated back to that group.
“Believe it or not, they were getting lots of calls around Christmas, because what do you get grandma. So, they thought, lets organize this. It rolled out last year and this year it became extremely popular.”
More than $25,000 was raised through the partnership last year.
Although there are events beforehand this week, opening ceremonies for this year's Grange Fair will be held this Friday at 7 p.m.
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