Goodnight Raleigh - a look at the art, architecture, history, and people of the city at night

Faces at the NC State Fair

This is an excerpt from Scott Fitzgerald’s book, A Night at the Fair:

Once again the fair–but differing from the fair of the afternoon as a girl in the daytime differs from her radiant presentation of herself at night. The substance of the cardboard booths and plaster palaces was gone, the forms remained. Outlined in lights, these forms suggested things more mysterious and entrancing than themselves, and the people strolling along the network of little Broadways shared this quality, as their pale faces singly and in clusters broke the half darkness.

I love these old glass soda bottles.

We’ve been having these Fairs for a very long time.  I really don’t think they’ve changed much and that’s a good thing.

I’d like to thank everyone who was gracious enough to have their picture taken.  These were all taken with old film cameras and it can take a few moments to get everything ready.

As a kid I had a closet piled full of huge stuffed animals I had won at the fair.  Some of these games are such classics that they’ll never go out of style.

Nothing beats a giant slide!

This guy was singing Elvis songs.  He was pretty good, too.

Someone needs to open a restaurant that sells “Fair foods”.  I’ll keep them open.

above photo credit: Adam Fowler

above photo credit: Adam Fowler

above photo credit: Adam Fowler

He was happy to give directions.  He had been doing this all night.