More parking aims to bring more visitors to Sandwich Fair in its 135th year

SANDWICH — The Sandwich Fair is back for its 135th year, Saturday through Monday, Oct. 10-12, after about 360 days of meticulous preparation and infrastructure upgrades.

Bryan Peaslee, president of the Sandwich Fair, said the board of directors begins meeting the week after the fair to start preparations for the following year, then meets every month leading up to it.

“We've got board members and employees that go to all sorts of other fairs, like our concessions manager was at Deerfield yesterday, seeing what works for them, what doesn't work for them,” Peaslee said. “So, I mean, it's constant, year-round to try and figure out how to fix all those little problems that pop up.”

Peaslee said last year, they had a couple people posting on social media that they tried to attend the fair on Saturday, and were driving around town, unable to find parking.

“They ended up leaving, because they couldn't find parking. Which is upsetting for us, because, you know, granted we did get 18,000 people last year on Saturday, which that's a wild number for us,” Peaslee said. “We still don't want anybody driving home. So, I made some moves in town with other pieces of property to try and get access to them for us to use for parking.”

Peaslee said he is hopeful this extra parking would alleviate the parking stress on the busiest days.

Staging for the Sandwich Fair began on Sept. 1, with event staff mowing lawns, getting all the grounds layout done, and positioning picnic tables and benches so everything is prepped and ready when the vendors arrive the week prior to opening.

Peaslee said the fair also has a new attraction this year: a cider press. A local resident rebuilt the massive cider press that will serve as an operational display throughout the weekend.

“It's a 20-foot by 40-foot tent that eventually, if all goes well, will become a pole barn next year that that'll be housed in, and we'll have that kind of an operating display all weekend long,” Peaslee said.

Peaslee said they have been putting a lot of effort into updating the electrical system on the livestock end of the grounds, which has not been updated since it was put together in the 1960s or '70s.

“As soon as we kind of finish that project, our plan is to move toward putting in a new cattle building, which will be far larger,” Peaslee said.

Peaslee said last year, they had to cancel the freestyle motocross show due to weather, and expanded the truck pull. Peaslee is excited about that event, as they have revitalized it.

“And there's been a lot of talk, a lot of chitter chatter about what that's going to look like again this year. Seems like we have a lot of trucks coming, so that's exciting.”

For full schedule details, visit thesandwichfair.com.

This year, the Sandwich Fair will have plenty of rides for guests to enjoy, operated by Gillette Shows. Peaslee said New Hampshire state inspectors come every year to examine the fair rides.

“They come to me, and they say, 'As long as you can keep Gillette, you've got the best of the best,'” Peaslee said. “So, that's always a really positive thing from a state inspector, you know, to take you aside, and say, 'This is a good thing you guys have going here.'”

Peaslee said the fair receives feedback from the public.

“Really, we don't tend to get a lot of negative press, which is really spectacular. And I think it speaks to the effort that so many people put into making it what it is,” Peaslee said. “We have developed a reputation as a very clean fair, very organized fair. Our vendors, and I think the reason we have such great food vendors and display vendors and stuff, is because we are very clean. We are very organized.”

Peaslee said they have a positive reputation with the residents of Sandwich. Peaslee lives in town, and said sometimes, people will approach him at the gas station when he’s filling up to give him feedback, but it has yet to be negative.

“They're like, 'I just got to tell you, you guys do such a good job cleaning up and making it all go away,'” Peaslee said. “Everybody wants the fair, but then the day after they're like, 'All right, we're done with that for the year.' So we get a lot of positive there.”

Peaslee is optimistic, with roughly a week left before the Sandwich Fair opens.

“Hopefully, we get good weather, and a lot of people, and everybody has a good time.”