ALTAMONT — Amy Anderson, who has managed the Altamont Fair for 14 years, is fueled by a passion for inclusiveness.

“In my prior life, I worked for Families Together in New York State,” she told The Enterprise this week. “I worked with children who were socially, emotionally, and behaviorally challenged.”

She has worked a lot with “kids who are different,” said Anderson, and has always been an advocate for “getting kids the things that they need to be successful in school … That’s always been a passion of mine.”

So this year’s Altamont Fair, which runs from Aug. 12 to 17, will for the first time have a period where the midway will be low sensory so that people who are neurodivergent can enjoy it.

Dreamland Amusements, which has provided the midway rides and games at the tri-county fair for years, has agreed that on Thursday, Aug. 14, from noon to 2 p.m., to “go low-sensory with no flashing lights or loud sounds,” said Anderson.

Anderson has partnered with The Autism Society Greater Hudson Region to provide a respite in the fair’s Dutch barn for people on the spectrum. “We’re putting up a dark room in the corner and they’re bringing in some bean bag chairs,” Anderson said of the autism society so people can “de-stress.”

The Dutch barn will serve as a low-sensory zone throughout fair week. Also, sensory kits may be borrowed from the fair office, complete with noise-reducing headphones, sunglasses, and fidget tools.

Another new initiative this year is bringing city and country kids together on opening day to explore the fair together.

Anderson went to a convention last January where she learned of an initiative from the state’s agriculture commissioner, Richard Ball, called a transportation grant “to bring kids to the fair.” The commissioner wants young people to embrace the longstanding tradition of supporting local fairs.

“I spent probably a month mulling that over on what my vision of that meant,” said Anderson, when she came up with an idea: “It was to bring low-income kids from rural and from urban areas together at the fair to learn about agriculture.”

The Altamont Fair won a $25,000 grant to host kids from rural Berne-Knox-Westerlo in the Hilltowns and urban Eagle Point Elementary School in Albany.

“There aren’t enough opportunities for kids from different backgrounds to come together in a fun place and get to know each other,” said Anderson. “It’s an important thing that we’re missing in society.”

Beyond that, the tour guides for the visiting children will be other kids steeped in agricultural expertise from 4-H and Future Farmers of America.

“I decided to make it peer-to-peer,” said Anderson. “They’ll be introducing the kids to the cows and the horses and all that kind of stuff so it’s kids learning from kids,” said Anderson. “They’ll pay more attention. They will be more involved and will think, ‘If this kid can do it, I can do it.”

She said of watching the kids on opening day, “I can’t wait to see their faces, to see the awe as they see some of these things for the first time. It makes my heart happy.”

Headliners

While the Altamont Fair, as always, will continue to offer its agricultural staples, its many museums staffed by volunteers, its fair food, and a wide variety of musical performers, it also offers different center-stage attractions each night in front of the grandstand.

Tuesday night will be a four-cylinder demolition derby, with smaller cars, a first for the fair, while Sunday night will feature the traditional eight-cylinder cars in a demo derby.

On Wednesday, for the first time, the fair will feature flat track races with motorcycles.

“Motorcycle people are like demo-derby people; they each have their following,” said Anderson. “One person says, ‘Hey, there’s a motorcycle race’ and all the motorcycle people come out, and so we’re very excited and they’re very excited,” said Anderson. “It’ll be fun.”

The bikers who will be racing on the flat track are local, she said.

A very different sort of crowd is expected to fill the grandstand on Thursday night, teenage girls who adore Taylor Swift. The event is billed as a “DJ Swiftie Dance Party.”

The DJ was very popular at last year’s state fair, said Anderson, so her assistant, Rachel McCormick, tracked him down.

“There are so many Swifties out there who love her music so we are jumping on the bandwagon …,” said Anderson. “We’re going to have a blast with it.”

The Lucky E Rodeo comes to the fair on Friday night. The rodeo is based in the Duanesburg area, Anderson said, and came to Altamont for the first time last year.

She was surprised last year when one of the bull riders was announced as Cody Byrnes. He used to work on the maintenance crew at the fair.

After graduating from Berne-Knox-Westerlo, he went west to college, said Anderson. “His dad was a pretty famous bull rider … Cody’s on the circuit now. He goes around from rodeo to rodeo riding bulls.”

Although skeptics thought fair-goers might not watch a rodeo, the grandstand was full last year. “It was standing-room only,” said Anderson.

Thursday night is another first for the fair, the Little Mania Midget Wrestling Exhibition. Asked why the fair booked that, Anderson said of the assistant manager, “Rachel has asked for it since the day she started working here.”

McCormick, who has been Anderson’s “right hand” for nine years, she said, would get flyers sent to her every year promoting the midget wrestlers. “She would forward them to me and say, ‘Please, please, please, can we get midget wrestling?’ So, this year when she did it with her big eyes and, you know, batting her eyelids at me, I was like, ‘OK, Rach, let’s book them.’”

Asked what the exhibition consists of, Anderson said, “Exactly what it sounds like — it is midgets wrestling.”

Closing night on Sunday is the demolition derby, where cars crash into each other until only one remains driveable.

“People get there an hour, an hour-and-a-half beforehand to get a seat in the stands,” said Anderson of the derby crowd. “They’ll sit in the boiling sun just to make sure they have a seat for the demo derby. That is loyalty.”

Attractions

One thing at the fair over which Anderson has no control is the weather.

“I can control a lot of things but the weather is just not one of them” she said. “So we’ve worked with all of our buildings” to come up with activities that fair-goers can do inside in case of rain.

Some buildings may feature games while another “might pull out a cow and for a hand-milking demonstration,” said Anderson.

Some of this year’s attractions, like the Royal Hanneford Circus, are back by popular demand while others are new.

Fair-goers will have a chance to learn how to fish at this year’s fair.

“We’re having a guide come that has a tank and they will actually teach you to fish,” said Anderson. The tank will be set up near a building that houses displays from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

“So all the outdoors people are there and they can encourage people,” said Anderson, adding, “I’m a big proponent of getting outside, stop sitting behind a screen, stop playing with your thumbs, get outside. … Show your kid how to toss a line into a body of water and catch a fish.”

The fair will also have dock-diving dogs this year. “So, if it’s really hot and humid, that’s where we’ll all be hoping to get splashed,” said Anderson.

“The handler will throw a toy out into the middle of the pool just to determine how far out the dog can dive,’ said Pat Canaday, a fair spokeswoman, describing the diving dogs, which are a variety of breeds.

“It’s a lot of fun because the dogs are pretty darn talented,” she said.

Canaday also said that the racing corgis, which were a hit at last year’s fair, will be back again this year.

“Corgi,” which means “dwarf dog” in Welsh, were bred to herd cattle and, although small, can reach speeds up to 25 miles per hour.

“We also have Rhonda’s Reptiles,” Canaday said. “She’s new.”

Rhonda Leavitt, who has been handling reptiles, loving them since she was a kid, will display a variety of reptiles every day at the fair from 3 to 7 p.m. “She’s a rescue person so it will be fun to hear her back story,” said Canaday.

Even the tried and true at the fair — like the Grange Hall, which features handmade and hand-baked goods — has something new, said Anderson

They’re going to have cinnamon buns in the Grange,”she enthused. “I don’t think people are aware that every day they bake something from scratch. It’s inexpensive and so delicious. It’s ridiculous,” said Anderson.

Wednesday at the fair is Seniors Day, Grange Day, and Armed Services Day with free admittance for those groups.

This year, on Armed Services Day, a motorcycle escort will usher in not just veterans but young people who are taking their oaths to join the military.

“We’re so thankful and grateful to the veterans that we honor,” said Canaday, “and now we want to honor the new people who are becoming part of that special group of givers.”

Another new feature at this year’s fair is that the 1890s Hallenbeck building has been converted into a country store where crafts created by “our fair family” will be on display and on sale, said Anderson.

The fair family, she explained, includes “a couple hundred volunteers.”

Anderson’s sister, for example, comes up from Virginia to pick vegetables in the fair garden “because we don’t have time to do it,” Anderson said. “She crochets and knits and is part of the fair family.”

Anderson herself will be displaying earrings she has made and art she has painted.

“That’s my therapy,” Anderson said. “During the winter, I have absolutely nothing to do.”

Except, perhaps, envision next summer’s fair.

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Tickets at the gate cost $10 on Tuesday, and $15 on Wednesday through Sunday. Children age 10 and younger are admitted for free every day. Parking is free. The fairgrounds are accessible from routes 146 and 156 in Altamont.