Hardin County Fair wraps up; injured volunteer recovering after accident

The sixty-first year of “the most fun you can have with your shoes on” wrapped up Saturday night as the Hardin County Fair came to a close.

“We had a really, really good fair week,” said Fair Board PResident Marty Fulkerson. “We ran into some issues with all the storms and tornado warnings Tuesday, that kind of hurt the attendance a little bit, but we had a really, really good fair. It was hot, but gosh, it’s July, and that’s what happens when fair time is here.”

He said entries appeared to be up among 4H and FFA members and a good turnout could be seen in the Family Living Building, including the debut year for the Exceptional category.

A scary situation was seen Saturday morning as one of the fair volunteers was seriously injured while preparing for the Brush Pull and had to be flown to a Louisville hospital for treatment. The fair board said the volunteer is stable and recovering.

“There’s still a long way to go and more surgeries and things it looks like, but it was just a freak accident,” Fulkerson said. “In 61 years, we’ve never had something like that happen. We’ve been pretty blessed, and we’re still praying for him and his family, and he’s got a long road to go.”

Fulkerson said the fair would not be possible without the support of the community and the fair’s sponsors, along with the hard work of the fair team.

“You get a fair board group of 20 people,” Fulkerson said. “There’s no way we can do it. It takes all the volunteers. I think there’s probably 60 or 70 volunteers in the Family Living Building. That track crew up there consists of probably 12 people that make that happen, and it’s a lot of turnovers and turnarounds.”

The Hardin County Fair will return the first full week of July 2025.