A pie-eating contest, car show, dog parade and more are at the Hometown Country Fair.

By Jake BOWMAN

Plans are underway for the 14th annual Hometown Country Fair. According to Calvin “Kaipo” Chock, a past president of the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce, which hosts the fair, and chair of the event for the past four years, the one-day event will be a fun day at CV Park.

“You should come to the fair because it supports your community and shows community spirit,” Chock said.

Though free to attend, the fair is one of several events that help the local chamber raise funds. Those funds are used to help host many community events throughout the year and provide a way for the chamber to donate to a variety of local organizations while assisting in lowering the cost of membership to the chamber.

“When [the chamber hosted] the fireworks show, that was our main income for all events. When we were not able to continue [hosting that], we needed to come up with a new idea that would draw the community together,” said Jean Maluccio, the former executive director for the CV Chamber of Commerce.

“We [decided on] a local country fair,” Maluccio continued. “Over the years we added more to it, such as the car show, the dog parade and pie-eating contest. The fact that the fair is free to attend makes it affordable, as you can just sit on the grass and listen to entertainment all day.”

Along with the cars, dogs and pies, the fair organizers have done all they can to make each year’s fair unique and exciting. This year, along with those classic events, the fair will include inflatables and bouncers, a water balloon toss, a dunk tank and food trucks.

“I am most excited about the pretzel truck,” Chock said.

The pretzel truck will offer many kinds of pretzels available for purchase, including cinnamon pretzels and a sour cream and onion pretzels. Pretzels and other food truck fare will not be the only food available, though, thanks to local community members who have donated hotdogs and hamburgers to be cooked at the event.

Perhaps one of the most exciting new additions to the fair is the inclusion of Tesla this year. Tesla will be on-site to give people test drives in one of its amazing cars. Tesla will also be holding a raffle and anyone can enter to win a weekend test drive experience with ether the Model X or Model S. Whether guests are about to get their license or are in the market for a new vehicle, this could be a great opportunity to test out some amazing cars.

The Hometown Country Fair will be held at Crescenta Valley Park, 3901 Dunsmore Ave. in La Crescenta on April 27 from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. The Crescenta Valley High School Charismatics will start the day by singing the national anthem and the Crescenta Valley High School JROTC program will be presenting the colors.

  Jake BOWMAN