Around Town

‘People Have a Great Time’: May Fair Set for Friday Night, All-Day Saturday

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New Canaanites this weekend will descend on St. Mark’s grounds for one of the town’s most beloved annual traditions. May Fair organizers say the cherished rain-or-shine event is in its 70th year and that they’re keeping their fingers crossed for good weather for both Friday Night Lights, which runs 5 to 10 p.m., and the all-day fair that opens 9 a.m. Saturday. “It’s a tradition and it kind of marks people’s springtime—‘It’s Mother’s Day weekend—time for May Fair,’ ” Co-Chair Kit Devereaux told NewCanaanite.com. “I think people have a great time.”

A fundraiser for St.

Around Town

PHOTOS: May Fair 2017

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Friday Night Lights proved an ideal time to attend New Canaan’s annual May Fair due to an early closure caused by rainy weather on Saturday. Children and adults of all ages gathered at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church to go on rides and eat a variety of the fair’s classic foods ranging from hot dogs and pizza to cotton candy and ice cream. Kit Devereaux, one of May Fair’s organizers, said Saturday’s rain had a positive effect on the fair insofar as it brought crowds in earlier. “Friday Night Lights, in its third year, was the most successful we’ve ever had,” she told NewCanaanite.com.

Around Town

PHOTOS: May Fair 2016

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Scores of New Canaanites and area residents arrived at the (pesticide-free) grounds of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Saturday for the annual May Fair. Under a gray sky and scattered light rain, children and families smiled and screamed on rides, feasted on barbecue from the Holy Smokers, as well as cotton candy, strawberry shortcake, pizza from Joe’s Pizza and ice cream from Baskin Robbins, shopped at the hugely popular White Elephant tag sale and enjoyed live music from School of Rock New Canaan musicians. For the second straight year, the fair featured a “Friday Night Lights” preview prior to the traditional fair, with rides and food.

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PHOTOS: 2015 May Fair

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The 66th annual May Fair went off without a hitch, as a festive crowd enjoyed rides, games, food and entertainment under sunny skies on Saturday, May 9. It was also the first year fairgoers were able to experience the event under the stars, as St. Mark’s Episcopal Church presented the premiere edition of “Friday Night Lights”, which proved to be a huge hit.

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Holy Smokers, May Fair Volunteers Prep for Big Day at St. Mark’s [PHOTOS, VIDEO]

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The Holy Smokers—St. Mark’s men of prolonged vowels and serious barbecue—typically wait until 5 a.m. on the Thursday prior to May Fair Saturday to light the fires whose smoke will flavor their famed brisket and pork. This year, with more than 600 pounds of each, the guys—supplying their own smokers, including at least one built from scratch—lit the flames at midnight and put the first of 37 shoulders on about 90 minutes later, according to Holy Smoker and New Canaanite George Wright, a native Virginian who doubles as a coordinator with CERT, a key organization in helping May Fair run well. “We rub the first of the meat on Wednesday night and they are coming off now, most of them are off for that first turn,” Wright said Thursday afternoon from what soon will transform into the hub of the May Fair Food Court, a portable stereo playing country music nearby. “They are gong to cool down, and then we will pull them and sauce them.”

This year, visitors will enjoy the first-ever “Friday Night Lights” at the 66th annual May Fair—rides, live music and some food (pizza, burgers, dogs and ice cream “up top” on the wholly pesticide-free fairgrounds), running 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday.