Oops
That was me. I forgot I wasn’t logged in on this machine.

Well then, let me recommend some fairs. If you want to see the real thing, not just a couple of stages with overamplified performers and a drag race/demolition derby track, then you’ll have to get out away from Cook County a bit. Lake, Kane, and DuPage have lost the focus of genuine county (country) fairs, in my opinion. McHenry is failing fast too.
I heartily recommend the Boone County Fair in Belvidere, which will be August 10-14 this year, and the fair at Sandwich (DeKalb County?) which will be at the start of September (I haven’t checked, so I’m not sure of exact dates.) The Winnebago County Fair in Pecatonica is pretty decent too (August 17-21.)
Which fair you like depends on what you’d like to see. Winnebago has the best old-fashioned harness racing, I’d say. Boone and Sandwich have the best displays of baking, preserving, quilting, etc. Boone has an ARBA-sanctioned rabbit show, while the others just have smaller 4H shows. Sheep and cattle are big at Boone and Winnebago, and Boone has large goat and poultry exhibits. McHenry (in Woodstock this week) has the only llamas and alpacas of the bunch. Boone has a wonderful showing of big draft horse hitches on Saturday afternoon, but you’ll be at Irishfest then. Antique farm and tractor equipment is exhibited in quantity at Boone and Winnebago fairs.
All have large midways, commercial exhibits, and the usual county fair food booths. I generally avoid the junk food, but my mate recommends the cream puffs and doughnuts at Boone County in particular, and the large Eastern Star open air diner at Sandwich does a good fried chicken or barbecue beef dinner. Everywhere has corn dogs and lemon shake-ups, fried cheese curds, elephant ears, polish sausages, and so forth.

The timing is unfortunate, then (though I really do need to get to one of the county fairs around here this year!. It truly is a sight to behold, certainly, and not quite the beer-soaked revels that tend to be held at the Festival Grounds, I’m told. I really like it because if the crowds get too much you can always go down by the lake (Lake Michigan, that is) and relax a bit in the shade. If you’re lucky, they’ll be showing the Irish wolfhounds, too! The unfortunate thing is that for the really popular bands (e.g. Gaelic Storm) it is very much a mob scene around the stages when they play.

I meant the third time overall. The first time I went was, I believe, in 2000 (or maybe it was 1999?)