Each summer, the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair captures the late August energy and celebrates the Island’s culture, creativity, and community. The four-day event is a massive undertaking, and it runs on the dedication of hundreds of volunteers, many of whom have been returning year after year.
“We’re throwing a party for 60,000 of our closest friends,” says Kate Athearn, the volunteer coordinator. “I don’t think we’d be able to have the hall without volunteers, I don’t think we’d be able to exhibit things without volunteers. Most of the barn is volunteers –– being able to have the animals and have the exhibits is all volunteers.”
Part of Athearn’s coordination efforts includes setting up a SignUpGenius form on the Agricultural Society’s website, which is then shared across social media with a QR code. Prospective volunteers can choose from a wide range of jobs and time slots, whether it’s a single two-hour shift or a full weekend commitment.
“Every job, you get trained in,” says Athearn. “We provide everything that you need. You show up, we tell you what building and who to report to. Of course there’s perks –– for pretty much everything you do before the fair you get a fair pass, so you get in for free.”
Athearn’s connection to the fair goes back decades. Her husband Bryan was elected president of the Ag Society in 2016. “My husband grew up going to the fair; it was a big part of his childhood,” says Athearn.
Each year, Athearn looks forward to the day before the fair begins, when the hall comes to life with a wide range of creative entries. “I just really like the energy on fair check-in day,” Athearn says, “when everyone’s bringing in their flowers and cookies and paintings and Lego houses –– that is such a great day. It’s like Christmas Eve, everyone’s so excited; it’s everything we’ve worked for.”
Though the fair attracts tens of thousands of visitors, for many Islanders it serves as a reunion. Arriving at the end of August, it is a final, communal exhale after the intensity of summer, allowing volunteers and guests to reconnect after a busy summer. “We are the Island, the people of the Island are putting on the fair, and that’s why the people of the Island love it,” says Athearn.
Although this is true, the fair is always welcoming to new volunteers. “We’re really happy to have new people to come in. It’s four days, but it’s really like a month of working really closely with these people, and you don’t really do anything else. I know it’s a fundraiser, and I know it’s hard work, but it is also a big party.”
Some volunteers have been part of the operation for decades. One longstanding tradition involves hand-stringing the exhibit tags, each one to be used to label entries in the hall.
Nancy Cabot, one of the stringers, started volunteering in 1946, following the end of World War II, with her mother, her sisters, and her cousins. During the war there was no fair, and when it returned, her family helped bring it back to life.
“In the early days of the fair, it was very much an Island production; there were not nearly as many people on the Island at that time, so you knew almost everyone who was at the fair, and you knew all the animals because you knew all the farmers,” says Cabot.
Along with stringing, her job was to guide people entering the hall to their exhibits so they could place their tags. “I felt very important being able to direct people,” she adds..
Now, almost eight decades later, Cabot hopes the spirit of the hall lives on through younger generations. “To me, it’s the heart of the fair,” she shares. “I hope that volunteers will feel excited and want to participate in the hall exhibits –– for me, the exhibits are such a huge part of what the fair
is about, and I hope that the interest in them continues.”
Cabot began volunteering with her cousin, Susan Boass, who started when she was 5, stringing tags with her aunt Alice. “It was part of our lives; the fair was a big part of our family –– it’s what we did,” said Boass today.
Boass will be back at the fair this year, almost 80 years after she first started. “Keep volunteering, because it’s really a lot of fun, and you meet a lot of wonderful people,” Boass says as a message to younger generations of volunteers.
Athearn sees that spirit of
continuity and care in the volunteer base each year.
“Everybody is doing it for the right reason,” she continues. “Everybody feels really strongly about raising money for the Ag Society. It’s really important for the Island, for the history of the Island. This has been going on for a long time. This is bigger than me.”
Last year marked the first fair without longtime hall manager Janice Haynes, who passed away in 2023. “It was really sad for the crew,” Athearn says, “but there’s a wonderful person who worked closely with her who was keeping her spirit alive.”
That person is Susanne Cronin, Haynes’ former assistant and now the hall manager. Cronin first volunteered at the old Ag Hall in 1993, and never left. She’s served as a department head for adult art, entered work of her own, and now oversees the hall’s operations.
“The opportunities and the sense of community and all of the connections you make is just incredible,” says Cronin. “We couldn’t have a fair without volunteers.”
Each year, volunteers return to the fair. Some are third-generation families who are involved, whether it’s hall monitoring or judging or stringing. Cronin recalls one family that has seven members volunteering this year. “The fair draws so much diversity,” she says. “We get a mix of Islanders and people who are seasonal, and visitors who are here for the week, that come out.
“It’s definitely a meeting place,” Cronin adds. “The Island is so busy in the summer, and you don’t have time, so this is a place where people will meet up. We’re learning together, we’re sharing, we’re growing. If you weren’t volunteering, you wouldn’t make that connection.”
After weeks of preparation, Cronin’s favorite moment mirrors Athearn’s: opening the hall on Thursday morning. “It’s very magical. When we are done with the judging on Thursday morning, and we remove the rope from the doors and people come in, it’s just magic,” she says. “The photography, the floral arrangements, the art, the baking –– it inspires people.”
Cronin remembers when her now-adult sons would run into the fair on opening day. “The first thing they did was come into the hall; it didn’t matter about going on the rides, it didn’t matter about going to the fireman’s booth and getting a burger –– they wanted to see if they were ribboned,” shares Cronin.
This year, Janice Haynes’ husband, Jeremiah Brown, will be entering a quilt made out of some of her old fair T-shirts.
“I’m grateful for whatever help I get. Sometimes people can only give two hours, but that’s two hours I didn’t have,” says Cronin, to interested volunteers. “The staff here is a really friendly group of people –– we welcome new faces all the time, and encourage it!”
The Ag Fair will run from August 21st to the 24th at 35 Panhandle Rd, West Tisbury. For those interested in Volunteering visit https://marthasvineyardagriculturalsociety.org/volunteerorworkatthefair.
