PROCTORVILLE – Eight days of 4H activities, rides, music and all the fair food you can eat has officially kicked off in Proctorville.

The 2011 Lawrence County Fair started July 9 and will continue until Saturday.

“It looks like we’re going to have a good crowd, a real good crowd,” Fair board president Freddie Hayes Jr., said.

Rides opened at 4 p.m. Food vendors of all kinds had set up well before people started rolling in.

Tim Fulton of Columbus sold frappés and smoothies from a stand near one of the animal barns.

“It’s a typical first day,” Fulton said of the crowd. “It just increases everyday. Tomorrow will be busier and the next day will be busier and it will build until the big Saturday.”

Fair animals were brought in at 6 a.m. this morning, but campers had already taken their places by Saturday afternoon.

Jayme and Eric Wall, of Proctorville, are staying on the fairgrounds in a camper all week with their two children.

“It’s the convenience of being with the animals,” Jayme Wall said.

It’s a convenience the couple had waited a while for. Before they got their permanent camping spot, they had been on a waiting list for nine years beginning when their daughter Ericca was just a baby.

Now 11, Ericca has been showing animals at the fair for the last two years.

“It’s fun,” she said. “I like working with the animals.”

While the family is relaxing on a Saturday evening, they know they won’t get much rest during fair week, when the day starts early and ends late in the evening.

“You’re looking at about a 20-hour day and show days are worse,” Eric Wall said. “It’s a lot of work but it’s a lot of fun. You have to try to teach these kids some responsibility.”

Chris Webb of Scottown is camping this week with his 14-year-old son, Collin, and his 11-year-old daughter, Savannah. Both show rabbits at the fair.

“We’ve been coming to the fair for as long as I can remember and we got the kids involved with it (when they were younger),” Webb said.

“I just like the fun of mingling with everybody and kind of making new friends. Sometimes you run into family you haven’t seen in years.”