The Barbour County Fair comes around every summer, and it’s the community’s way of celebrating the end of a successful growing season. The opportunity for fun is unlimited!
There is the midway carnival full of fun rides, games, craft booths, fun-house, and of course your favorite fair snacks: who can pass up a corn dog, funnel cakes and cotton candy? Each year, the community elects a King and Queen via a pageant, and they are duly crowned during the gala celebrations.
Adults and children alike may enter into the competitive exhibits, which include arts & crafts, culinary, horticultural and agricultural events. The competition also involves horsemanship, including the 4-H Horse Show, livestock, and even bull riding. There is plenty of space for your trucks and trailers, as well as arenas, pastures, and paddocks for the livestock.
There is a grand parade, a car show and every child’s favorite, “Kids’ Day.” You can’t miss the demolition derby or the lawn/garden tractor-pull. ATV enthusiasts can compete in the exhilarating races. The fair also offers live entertainment (schedules vary from year to year.)
Blue and Gray Reunion was held: May 30 – JUNE 2, 2019
On May 28, 1861, Col. George Porterfield and his Confederate troops arrived in Philippi, where they camped or were quartered in town. Neighbors and families were already divided on the question of secession. There were at least 750, if not upwards of 2,000 troops. At daylight on June 3, two columns of Union forces, with perhaps 3,000 men, arrived from Grafton under the command of Col. Ebenezer Dumont and Col. Benjamin Kelley.
Mistaking a pistol shot by a Mrs. Humpreys on the hill above the town as a signal to start the battle, the Union troops fired on the Confederates with two brass six-pound Napoleon cannons. The Confederates routed to a big rock south of town and departed in good order to Belington and ultimately to Beverly.
