The airline pilot happened to be in Amsterdam but he had a question. He sent a text to a friend and asked, “When is the world’s fair?” The friend texted the dates in his reply.
The pilot said, “Good, I want to be sure I make it back to Kansas for it.” The self-proclaimed world’s fair to which he referred is a remarkable community fair in rural Kansas.
Last week we learned about a century-long collection of fair books. Those fair books were produced for the annual Kincaid Farmers Free Fair, known today as the Kincaid World’s Fair or Kincaid Free Fair for short. Gary Holloway is the president of the Kincaid fair board.
From newspaper accounts, it appears that the first Kincaid fair was held in 1907. “Of my grandparents, one was 8 (years old) and the other was 5 (at that time),” Gary said. It began as a Farmer’s Institute and corn growing contest, in an effort by local businessmen to attract attention and generate business from the railroad.
Since that time, the fair has been held every year, except when cancelled due to World War II and due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. This year, the fair theme is “110 years and going strong.”
Gary Holloway’s family was always involved in helping with the fair. He grew up on the farm near Kincaid, went away to college and worked in business before coming back to the farm. He and his wife raised two sons, one of whom went to K-State and is coming back to the farm with his family also. “My grandchildren will be the fifth generation to be involved with the fair,” Gary said.
