It’s fair week for Wasatch County, and that means good food, good times, and community activities that can make the once rural and fast-growing community feel small again, at least for a few precious days.

Jen Bowman, marketing coordinator for Wasatch County Parks and Recreation, said there is no significant difference between this year’s event and the 2023 fair, but that doesn’t mean the festivities won’t be exciting, varied or enthusiastic.

From a free dinner on Monday night to a series of rodeos ending on Saturday evening, there are plenty of opportunities for community members with all interests to get involved and spend some time at the fair or participating in the activities.

The real highlight, she says, is Friday morning at 9 a.m. during the Mountain Valley Roundup, a rodeo where community volunteers come together to help people with special needs during their competitions.

“That one is really special for us. We get law enforcement, we get our local high school rodeo team to come out and volunteer with all these participants to have a really, really good time,” Bowman said. “That’s definitely the highlight, I would say.”

“He’s everywhere with those kids,” Bowman said, “making sure they’re having a great time and being taken care of.”

Tuesday begins with cattle shows at 10 a.m. An hour after those shows end, kids will also show goats they’ve raised. Later, there’s a free pool party at the Wasatch Aquatic Center from 1 to 3 p.m.

“It’s usually a lot of fun,” Bowman said. “As you can imagine, it’s pretty crowded. … Who doesn’t want to jump in a pool on a hot day?”

The fair and country market will be set up at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday and will run all weekend. That evening, Wasatch County Council members will serve a $5 barbecue dinner.

“The Dutch oven potatoes are to die for,” Bowman said. “They’re cooked by one of our employees. His name is John Burns, and he’s just the epitome of all that’s good. He’s just a great, great man, and he makes all the Dutch oven potatoes, and it’s like he’s cooking for his own family, but it’s actually 1,500 people.”

Later that evening, people can come to an outdoor performance of Encanto at the baseball fields. Bowman said the start time depends somewhat on when the sun sets, but she said 9:15 p.m. is a reasonable estimate.

Thursday night gets dusty during the first of three night rodeos running through Saturday.

“We’re honoring all of our military, so it’s going to be a pretty special night,” Bowman said. “We’re going to have some highlights and we’re going to go through the branches of the military and thank them.”

On Saturday, children sell their animals at an auction that starts at 9:00 am. The winning animals are auctioned.

For Bowman, who has attended the fair for the past 10 years but didn’t see much of the business side until she started at Parks and Rec in March, the fair provides a welcome respite from the busy daily experiences of Wasatch County residents. She also noted that she married a local, and he has given her perspective on how important the annual celebration is here.

“It’s just easy. Life goes by so fast. Things move so quickly,” she said. “When you go to the fair, it’s kind of like a throwback to your childhood of being carefree and hanging out with friends, visiting people you haven’t seen in a while. … It’s just good old-fashioned fun planning, and I think that’s what a lot of us miss throughout the year.”

As a first-year member of Parks and Rec, she had a front-row seat to the 25 full-time staff members who dedicated themselves to planning and coordinating the event.

“The tenure at Parks and Rec is one of the longest tenures I’ve ever seen. My boss has been at Parks and Rec for almost 30 years, the director has been there for almost 30 years, Amari (Scovil) has been there for almost 30 years, and everybody is in that 10+ range,” she said. “They start planning for next year as soon as the next year’s fair is over, and there are fair briefings with different agencies around town.”

She said they enlist aid workers to help and that the process involves a level of camaraderie she wasn’t aware of until she saw the event from the planning side.

A complete list of events can be found on the Parks and Recreation website.