What Puts the Community in the Karns Community Fair

By Macy Alred and Hailie Ford

At some point in your life, granted that you are one to ponder or to wonder, you might begin to ask questions.

Right now, however, I would actually like to draw up a rather specific inquiry: What, do you think, makes a community?

To describe a community is to discuss the unique culture that holds it together. Without culture, one that is special to the area and that represents its values and goals, a community is really only a bunch of houses built near one another and a set of people to go with them. However, and to our great fortune, there are many people to thank, those mentioned in previous articles written by my peers and those to be mentioned in the future, for the fact that Karns isn’t just that at all. It’s not just a town, it’s a community, and this next piece of the puzzle to complete the tapestry of its soul is my own to mention and bind onto internet history: The Karns Community Fair.

Provided that you are able, think back to something that you’re proud of, that you worked hard on, be it a large event or an article for a class, and from that memory you may be able to picture the passionate air my teammate and I were greeted with when we were given the opportunity to hear Mrs. Cassie Kiestler, the organizer for the fair in the past five years, talk about the project.

Mrs. Kiestler, being a Karns native in every sense of the term, naturally would be inclined to be passionate about the affairs of the town and, by extension, the fair. The job fell into her hands after the previous organizer dropped out due to the negative response he received after making changes to the parade route: “There was a gentleman six years ago that had run the fair and… folks were really giving him a hard time on Facebook, imagine that, social media trolls, and um, I kinda stepped up and told him, “If you need help, if you’ve got questions…” because, you know, I’ve been in the community for a very long time and I’ve basically attended every fair since like, 1975…. because I’m old…  “I’m willing to help you out.” And he… was just kinda like, “here, you take it, you run with it, see if you can do something…” So… because I opened up my mouth to start with and to defend him, I ended up with it as my baby.”

Aside from the obvious and intent care that goes into raising this fair, it is also comparable to a baby in the sense that it takes nine months out of the year to produce. Mrs. Kiestler works alongside other volunteers at monthly meetings every month out of the year minus August, which is the month after the fair, as well as November and December, due to holidays.

Before I inform you of the result of this planning, such as the myriad of activities that come your way upon attending such an event, I must first delve a tad into the history of The Karns Fair, which is a course of action that need not surprise any observant person browsing a page titled Karns Oral History.

Since its birth in 1954, the fair has undergone somewhat of a very miniature industrial revolution, mirroring that of its mother town, in the sense that it has drifted from its roots in farming into a modernized version of its previous self, but it was originally started by the community club as a means to celebrate agriculture. Back in the day, it featured mostly activities that seemed to cater to farmers and agriculture enthusiasts.

When asked to compare the fair of the mid-’70s to its modern evolution, Mrs. Kiestler described it as “kind of a different animal.” She told us, “There were less vendors and more agricultural stuff. … there we categories for people to do stuff like place settings and things like that. There were competitive exhibits and needlepoint and things of tobacco and bails of hay that were judged against other farmers in the community that we just don’t have anymore… So now we do stuff like canned goods and knitting and crochet and needlepoint and photography. Some mixed media stuff, mostly vegetables. The vegetables have actually had a resurgence lately because a lot of people have started to do small gardens, and so that’s coming back, which I love.”

Though the past is so often looked at through the romantic lenses of rose-colored glasses, she said that she also is a fan of what the fair has going on now.

As promised, I’ll now showcase what kind of things have been brought about in recent fairs past and what brand of things you might be able to look forward to this July 20th. There is a beauty pageant (which has, with most things, been modernized, as it now has shifted focus from outer beauty to inner) along with a country store that sells baked goods taken in by people, a car show, and plenty of activities for children, which are only several of the things the fair hosts. The parade has stayed mostly consistent with tradition, stretching from the local Ingles to the high school, but in her five years of organizing the fair, Mrs. Kiestler has made inclusion somewhat of a focal point of the event; there is a diverse array of food vendors and trucks that sometimes range from tacos to sushi bowls, and any time a tent is set up catering to one side of the political spectrum, there is another offering the opposite side.

Its longevity could perhaps be attributed to the familial, homey sense it brings its guests. For many, returning to it each year has been a way of returning to their hometown even long after moving away, and, in its 65 years, rain has only afflicted the fair once, and it’s a pretty thought that even the clouds smile down at this community homecoming that has been such a staple in this town, though its infinitely more likely that such weather could be attributed to the drought season that is July.

Above all, the Karns Fair is all about bringing together the people of this town. In Mrs. Kiestler’s words, “It seems like a sense of community and accomplishment and stuff that I would like to showcase as part of our community. We do great things here. Might just be growing a really awesome tomato, or needle pointing the coolest thing ever, but I want to showcase our people, and the things that they do, and I think that’s one of the best ways to do that,” and that is exactly why the fair is a fabulous example of what makes a community.

This year’s Karns Community Fair will take place on Saturday, July 20th on the Karns High School campus.