With the 99th Putnam County Fair underway, many people may be taking in the sights, sounds, and smells, at the Jefferson Avenue Fairgrounds.
Putnam County Fairground Manager Glenn Jones said the Putnam County Fair has been going on since 1854. Jones said he believes this year’s fair will be more special since it will be the last before moving to the new fairgrounds.
“I think it will,” Jones said. “When you look back in time, if you take pictures, videos, you’ll kind of feel that you were there when it was over. And I think that would be important. It would be to me, I plan on being here.”
The Putnam County Fair Board honored volunteers on Friday at the volunteer luncheon for their hard work and dedication. Volunteer Awards were awarded to Opal Bohannon and Carol Vinson. Jones said volunteers play a huge role in the Putnam County Fair.
“We could not put a fair on like this without the volunteers,” Jones said. “We have volunteers for security. They sit under the south grandstand and the cultural arts building, watching displays that people have brought to show, and we couldn’t pay everyone. All the Putnam County Fair Board members, none of us are paid. We just do this out of volunteering. They say there’s a total of 500 volunteers. It would be impossible to pay that many people.”
Jones received the 2025 Friend of the Fair Award. Jones said he volunteers for the fair because growing up, he was amazed by the fair.
“I can still picture it when I was, I’m gonna say, seven or eight years old, is going up on the north grandstand and looking over thinking, wow, this thing is huge,” Jones said.
Jones said this year’s fair will have a lot of the fan favorites, such as tractor pulls, livestock shows, demolition derby, and music. Jones said the Putnam County Fair has not only been special to the county this year, but also in generations past.
“A lot of people just come to see people that they know,” Jones said. “This is a great reunion for classes and stuff. They just come and see people they haven’t seen in years. Older people, they like to see the demonstrations, but they also like to see what’s under the south grandstand and the cultural arts building. A lot of them put things in, and the awards.”
The new fairgrounds are located off of Tennessee Avenue.
