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Soggy Start to Luzerne County Fair

LEHMAN TOWNSHIP — Opening night of the Luzerne County Fair was soggy and cool, and organizers are hoping the next few days of unsettled weather don’t hurt...

LEHMAN TOWNSHIP -- Opening night of the Luzerne County Fair was soggy and cool, and organizers are hoping the next few days of unsettled weather don’t hurt attendance.

Northeastern and central Pennsylvania have been hit by rain, remnants of the monster storm Harvey, and it's possible more unsettled weather could come this way from Hurricane Irma, poised to soon slam Florida.

"It doesn't look very good over the next couple of days, next couple of weeks with the hurricanes coming, but hopefully it stays out to sea and we don't get much out of it,” said vendor Jeremy Evans of Bloomsburg.

The Luzerne County Fair draws tens of thousands a year and many community organizations benefit from it.

It's not good if weather keeps people away.

“Everybody that you see that are in our gates, that are in our grounds, other than our security and that kind of stiff, they're all volunteer. So what we do in turn, they're all from clubs, they're all from our community, baseball teams, soccer teams, different organizations, churches. We make donations back to them after the fair, based on the attendance,” said Fair Chairwoman Brenda Pugh.

The fairgrounds are already soaked from Tuesday's torrential rains. Showers expected through Friday could make things even worse. But many people are sticking it out, trying to make the best of things.

"We open up our gates and trudge through and hope for the best. You just kind of have to stay positive and figure somebody's got to eat!” said Amy Jennings of Feed the Beast out of Dallas.

One sweet toddler wearing rain boots splashed in puddles Wednesday evening, with his optimistic parents looking on.

"It's been a rough couple of months actually even for the rain this summer, but we've been here before and through worse, so we will smile and get through it," said Jenny Hoyt of Shickshinny.

The Luzerne County Fair runs through Sunday and the forecast for the weekend is sunny and dry. Fair organizers are really hopeful lots of people will come out then.

"We're going to open the gate. It’s going to get a set of legs. It's going to go and all we can do is hope everyone comes in and has a good time,” said Pugh.

If fair goers stay away, it could also hurt efforts to help the Red Cross with Hurricane Harvey relief. Luzerne County Fair organizers are donating some ticket sale money to that.

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