SOUTH JORDAN — There's one word Salt Lake County Fair organizers want you to remember when you're thinking about what to do this weekend.
Free.
Horse pulls at the county fair — free. Monster truck rally — free. Demolition derby, Wednesday night movie ("Ice Age"), concert by the legendary Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, parking — free, free, free and, er, five bucks.
Hey, you can't have everything.
The fair's concession stands and carnival rides will also cost you a few dollars. For the most part, however, all you have to do to have fun at the fair is show up. And, fair director Corey Bullock says, bring the kids.
"We have a lot of fun things," he said.
"We tried to plan things that would be fun for the whole family. You can come to the fair and send the kids to do what they want to do while you do what you want."
So, while the tykes are trying to make the sheep baa or the cows moo or sabotage the cotton candy machine, the older folks can check out the canned fruit exhibit or the classic car show or the headliner show by the group that made "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" a standard.
The show by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is free, but you need a ticket to get in, and if you don't have one by now you're out of luck — they ran out Aug. 3.
"We anticipated (sales) to be pretty good, but we didn't expect them to sell out that soon," Bullock said.
Bullock said the band, well-known for its grass-roots music for a number of decades now, "fell into our laps." Turns out the group was touring nearby cities around the time of the fair and a side trip into the Salt Lake Valley was convenient.
The theme of the fair this year is "Fair Factor," a play on the television reality show "Fear Factor." No, participants won't be forced to eat cockroaches or walk a tightrope — it was adopted more as a fun play on words than anything else.
One interesting thing about the fair (and county fairs in general) is that the exhibits — everything from razorback hogs to quilts to squash — fall into two different classes. In the general class, anyone can enter and try to win the blue ribbon, and even if you flop at the county level you can enter the state fair and try your luck there.
The more rigorous class is 4-H, which 30,000 Salt Lake County youths belong to. The county fair is the marquee event for 4-H, where youths who have been working on projects or animals or produce during the year get to showcase their accomplishments.
"It's amazing to see what these kids do," said 4-H outreach coordinator Heather Rasband. "It's fun to watch them when they come in (and show their projects) — they're so excited."
They're not just messing around at the county fair, either — in 4-H class, only the winner gets to move on to the state fair.
"The fair really is the highlight," Rasband said.
The Salt Lake County Fair runs Wednesday through Saturday at the Salt Lake County Equestrian Park in South Jordan, 11400 S. 2200 West. See www.countyfair.slco.org for more information.
E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com