Bishop - Emerson Drive to headline Tri-County Fair

3-6-2008

With some of the more important details finalized, other preparations are well under way for the 2008 Tri-County Fair, and staff is excited to bring what it is expecting to be one of the best Labor Day weekend events across the state.

The Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fair has lined up event entertainment and selected the official “flavors,” theme and slogan for the Labor Day weekend festivities and will continue working through the summer to iron out some of the finer details of the event.
Acclaimed Country-Western act Emerson Drive will kick the fair into high gear by performing the opening-night concert on Thursday, Aug. 28.

Emerson Drive, a Grammy Award-nominated country music band, will be headlining the 2008 Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fair. Tickets for the concert will go on sale this summer. Photo courtesy Emerson Drive

“Tickets are not yet on sale for the fair-time concert, but many people have been asking who this year’s band would be,” said Tri-County Fair CEO Jim Tatum. “We are so thrilled to have Emerson Drive coming, that we just couldn’t keep it under wraps any longer.”
Emerson Drive is one of the hottest new country bands on the market, and in just a few years has earned a Grammy nomination, fame and several top singles.
Topping charts in Canada and America with singles such as “Moments,” “I Should Be Sleeping” and “Lucky Man,” since 2002, Emerson Drive has a reputation for putting on the type of energetic shows that organizers were looking for.
“They have several current country hits, and I have heard from people who have seen them live that they put on a super energetic live show,” said Tri-County Fair Facility Marketing Director Tawni Thomson.
The young country band has made a name for itself on the national stage by opening for stars such as Toby Keith and Shania Twain.
Tickets for the opening-night concert will go on sale this summer. In the meantime, visit www.emersondrive.com for music samples, videos and merchandise.
“A Tisket, A Tasket, A Fair-Filled Basket” was the fair slogan entry that won Bishop resident Naomi Wisdom an all-event’s pass to this year’s fair when board members selected the saying as this year’s official slogan.
This year’s picnic theme “is fun and kind of different and it fits with he things that are on display,” such as the homemade quilts and homegrown fruits and vegetables, she said.
Fair staff spent the better part of a month collecting and reviewing more than 100 submissions from Inyo, Mono and Alpine residents before selecting Wisdom’s entry on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at its regular meeting.
“It wasn’t easy to pick just one slogan from so many great and creative suggestions,” said Tatum.
Also at the end of February, the Fair Board discussed a matter of taste, and came to the conclusion that vanilla isn’t plain, apples make the perfect picnic pie and barbecue is too important to a picnic to offer just one entrée.
Bakers participating in this year’s fair should start practicing now for the annual pie contest. Local participants will be cooking up the “all-American” favorite apple pie for September’s pie baking competition at the fair.
Not only does apple compliment the fair theme, Thomson said it has not been the featured flavor for a number of years.
Thomson noted that apple is one of the most popular pies around, and competitors can expect some hardy competition with a lot of bakers turning out for this year’s contest.
And what goes better with homemade apple pie than homemade vanilla ice cream? That’s the flavor participants will be mixing up for the fair’s annual ice cream contest this year.
And finally, the fair board selected the new “tri-que” menu for the annual barbecue contest. The tri-que will include chicken, ribs and tri-tip entries.
The above contests, held Thursday and Friday night of the event in the Party Barn, are judged by a panel selected by the fair board; leftovers are then sold to spectators. All funds raised by the sale of contest entries are, in turn, donated to a local charity.
Anyone planning to enter this year’s fair can pick up an exhibitor’s guidebook this August.
For more information regarding the 2008 Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fair, call (760) 873-3588 or visit www.tricountyfair.com.