Carnival and Junior Livestock prep underway at Humboldt County fairgrounds

Here at the House of mirrors at the Humboldt County Fair, we talked to some carnival attendants about safety inspections and what goes into making the carnival happen. 

Mickey McGuire has been working on the Carnival Circuit on and off since he was 14. 

“I ran away from home. So he picked me up, gave me a job, and I left it a few times. But I always come back. Every state, United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico,” says McGuire.

Despite the adventure and constant traveling, carnival crew members are hard at work ensuring the rides are safe for the fair. 

“It does a 120 point inspection sheet that they do every day. And then before we even start, anybody even comes in. We’ll go through the day and we’ll do our big inspection and everything gets inspected, greased, washed, it’s got to be safe,” he says.

Meanwhile at the sheep barn, applicants for the junior livestock auction are checking in. 

“Yea, so today’s chaos, today we’re getting to barns filled at the Humboldt County Fair, the kids are bringing their animals in, get them situated in the pens. We’ve got all sorts of animals coming in today. We have dairy cattle, beef cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, rabbits, goats. everything’s coming in today. I would say there’s at least 400 animals here,” says Jana Pimentel of the Junior Livestock Auction Committee. 

The Junior livestock auction is one of the fairs biggest draws. 

“We have been extremely blessed by our local community in the last few years. Our sales broke $1 million, between the sale and add ons. so that’s a huge deal for these kids. They’re working so hard with these projects and raising the best quality animals and produce the best quality meat product,” she says.

And it’s not just a draw for local folks, Mickey says he’ll keep coming back to the Humboldt County Fair. 

“It’s cool. It’s nice and cool. And I get to go fishing and the beach is right there,” he says. 

Story by Tucker Caraway