The Isle of Wight County Fair earned the Best Large Fair Overall award at the Virginia Association of Fairs’ annual conference last week in Hot Springs.

This award is based on a combination of points gained by winning ribbons in a variety of competitions offered at the conference. This was the Isle of Wight County Fair’s first chance to compete on the Large Fair level, which is for fairs who counted more than 30,000 guests. The fair hit its all-time record attendance this year with 33,732 guests counted.

The fair competed in 18 competitions at the conference and placed in 14 of them. Nine first-place ribbons were received for the following: billboard created by Insercorp; media scrapbook created by Hollie Bickley; new age scrapbook; newspaper ad printed by the Smithfield Times; radio ad created by Eagle 97; website created by Insercorp; T-shirt created by West Sportswear; premium book printed by Modlin Printing; pageant book printed by MultiPrint Inc. Three second-place ribbons were received for the following: fair booklet printed by Apollo Printing; photographic essay; and fair theme. And, two third-place ribbons were received for fair map and the fair tabloid printed by the Smithfield Times.

“Coincidentally, our theme this year at the convention was Ready, Set … Grow! The Isle of Wight County Fair is doing just that — growing at a record rate with admissions year after year and winning awards and setting the pace for 2013. This award was definitely gained by a team effort,” said Darlene Keyt, events/fair coordinator.

“Receiving this award is indeed a team award, but I can’t say enough of the efforts of Darlene Keyt, who spent so much time and energy putting it all together,” said Mike Stephens, Isle of Wight County Fair committee chairman. “She knew what it took, organized it all and got it set up at the conference. She deserves a lot of the credit for our success.”