MARIETTA — The carnival lights advertised for this year’s North Georgia State Fair are starting to take shape, as vendors are setting up shop and carnival rides are being constructed at Jim Miller Park.
The North Georgia State Fair returns Thursday and will continue through Oct. 2.
The fair features a wide variety of local entertainment, more than 40 rides and games, fair foods, two petting zoos and one of the largest carnival midways in the U.S.
Gates open at 4 p.m. Thursday. The Thursday forecast is sunny, with a high near 92, and at night, mostly clear, with a low around 62.
This year, the family-owned fair presents new attractions such as the “Puppy Pals Dog Show,” as seen on America’s Got Talent, “The Birdman,” which is the nation’s largest traveling bird show and other famous acts.
The fair has also worked with the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office to honor the two sheriff’s deputies who were killed in the line of duty earlier this month. The sheriff’s office has relocated the memorial dedicated to Jonathan Koleski and Marshall Ervin Jr. to the fair, from its former home outside the Cobb jail.
The memorial consists of two sheriff’s office vehicles, portraits of the deputies and flowers, crosses, notes and other tributes that mourners have left. The fair added its own tribute by decorating hay bales with the words “God bless America.”
“The community response has been almost overwhelming, the outpouring of support, whether it’s from individual people, businesses wanting to provide food to the deputies,” said Sgt. Jeremy Blake. “… For both the funerals, I mean, there were people lining the streets all the way throughout the procession route. They want to know what they can do. There’s cards and flowers at headquarters, the community’s really shown that they support us and they support law enforcement.”
