Miami Dade Fair

 

November 21, 2021

 

Miami Dade Fair

One of my absolute favorite events of the year and one that I missed tremendously last year when it was only held in a virtual format is the annual Miami Book Fair. This year, Kathy and I had planned to attend together, but she opted out at the last minute to stay home with our very ill and very old cat Van, so I ventured up to Miami alone to go to the book fair. As usual I went up the night before the street fair was to start and found myself in Miami, with nothing to do on a rainy evening.

One of things that I always enjoy doing is going to a fair, and it just so happened that the Miami-Dade County Fair was being held at the same time as the Book Fair. Usually held each year in the spring, the fair was postponed this year due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and so it just happened to coincide with my time in Miami and was just up the road from the hotel, so I decided to check it out.

It had been raining, at times quite heavily, most of the day, but just about the time I headed over to the fairgrounds, it stopped and actually turned into a pretty nice evening. The weather certainly limited the crowd on hand and it was sort of like having the entire fair staged just for myself and the few hearty souls that came out.

The fair was massive and included one of the largest Midway amusement sections of any that I have attended. There were an amazing amount of rides and it covered a huge area. It seemed like it was the same Midway company that works the Indiana State Fair, which is my favorite fair of all, because there was a large semi on hand with the Indiana State Fair logo on it there. 

There was also all manner of my favorite fair foods, including Elephant Ears, Corn on the Cob, Corndogs and more. They had a huge selection of food booths and all manner of the current trend of crazy fair selections like fried oreos, twinkies and whatever else and pretty much nothing that resembled a healthy choice in site.

The fair also included a circus, various shows and entertainment, a large pavilion of vendors, arts and crafts created by local youths and of course a petting zoo with farm animals and even racing pigs. But all those things were overwhelmed by the size and amount of carnival rides and games that were on hand.

The largest portable Ferris Wheel in the world was on hand, it was massive and offered awesome views of the fair and Miami and the surrounding area. The Midway area was unmatched and you could literally just walk on and off the respective rides as often as you liked as there were no lines at anything.

I ate, rode rides, ate more, checked out a couple of shows and the pig races, petted some farm animals and had a glorious evening taking photos and enjoying the fair immensely. In the 30 plus years that I have lived in South Florida, I had never attended the fair and in fact don’t think I even knew of its existence, but I am sure to return. It is much better and classier than Santa’s Enchanted Forest, a fair-like attraction that we have been to a few times.

https://www.thefair.me/