174th Hillsdale County Fair Demolition Derby. Courtesy | Facebook

Live music returned to “The Most Popular Fair on Earth” this year, along with a pair of new events: the Mud Mitten Race Series and Pro Rodeo.

The Hillsdale County Fair hosted a concert on Sept. 23 that included performances by Michigan native Jason Cross, followed by Noah Hicks, and most notably Chris Lane, a country artist with an audience of 1.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The last time the fair featured live music was in 2021, according to fair manager Lori Hull.

Junior Anna Roberts, who was born and raised in Hillsdale, attended the concert. She said the fair has an ability to bring out well-recognized names for events.

“When I was a senior in high school, We Are Messengers, which is a very famous Christian music band, came and performed,” Roberts said. “The Hillsdale Fair has this pull and can just get crazy famous people out there to perform.”

Roberts said she knows two of Chris Lane’s songs well, but his overall performance was high-class and he entertained the crowd well.

“He was throwing cans of beer into the crowd,” Roberts said. “He was very humble and cared about putting on a good show. He was a good entertainer.”

Roberts also said Lane interacted well with the crowd, at one point inviting a girl from the crowd onstage and singing to her as she was waving at the crowd. Everyone was respectful of him and happy to be there, she said.

In addition to the notable performance of Chris Lane, this year’s fair introduced a new event to the roster, a Pro Rodeo which consisted of eight different events featuring professional athletes.

Freshman Elle Ritchey, who was born and raised in Kentucky, said she has missed going to horse shows like she could at her farm-centered life at home.

“Rodeo has such a family culture,” Ritchey said. “The entertainment is awesome, the values are wholesome. It’s one of the few sports that still prays and plays the national anthem before beginning.” 

Ritchey said the performance of the athletes was impressive, and not what she initially expected for a small-town fair.

“I have a lot of new friends who have never been to a rodeo, so getting to take them I was able to commentate the rodeo for them,” Ritchey said. “I was able to share a part of my background with my friends in a way they can tangibly see.”

In addition to the headliner events of the fair, each section of the grounds has something to offer. If one were to venture around the livestock exhibits and past the hay show, they would find Forest Nichols in the Grange Hall accompanied by an antique scroll saw.

Nichols traveled from Genesee, Michigan, to display his antique scroll saw at the fair and share his works of wooden art with the community. Nichols’ saw is one of the earlier models, which gained popularity in the Americas around the 1850s. The saw is pedal-operated, which connects to a mechanism that moves a small blade back and forth, used to cut intricate designs into wood.

Nichols said he wants to share how our ancestors used to do some of their work and appreciate it as a piece of history. He said part of that appreciation is putting the tools to use, not just letting them collect dust in a museum.

Nichols said he’s worked with wood for most of his life in a practical capacity, but now he uses it to make beautiful images reflecting his Christian faith and patriotism as a veteran.

“I worked for 30 1/2 years for General Motors until I retired,” Nichols said. “I’ve got 28 years on this saw, and the only retirement I got is a handful of sawdust.”

Though his retirement is not spent idly as some hope for, Nichols said the ethic of working hard on something you love directly correlates to one’s happiness in life. He also said this produces better work, which is why things such as the Hillsdale Fair are successful. 

“If you want a job, get a job you enjoy doing, and by doing that, you’ll have a happier and more satisfying life,” Nichols said.

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