Whether it’s a truck, a lawn mower or a bed, people will be able to race it at the 2010 Southern Kentucky Fair next week.

The fair will kick off with beauty pageants for newborns to adults at 1 p.m. Sunday at Warren Central High School. Admission is $8. Carnival rides and other activities begin Monday and continue through July 31 at the Southern Kentucky Fairgrounds at Lampkin Park. Gates open at 7 p.m. daily. Admission is $10. Family Night admission Tuesday is $8 with a canned food item.

There will be giveaways Monday through Wednesday at the fairgrounds. Participants must be present to win. Prizes each evening will be updated daily on the SOKY Fair website at www.sokyfair.org.

SOKY Fair chairman Chris Siegrist said this year’s events will feature two new activities – a Lawnmower Demolition Derby and the SOKY Fair Bed Race. Presented by Trent Bedding Co., the Bed Race will benefit CASA of South Central Kentucky.

“In the Lawnmower Demolition, you take regular lawn tractors that you’d mow your grass with and run them into each other. It’s kind of like a large demolition derby,” he said. “In the bed race, there will be teams with a twin-sized mattress on four wheels with one person riding on the bed and two people pushing. They will do at least two laps on the figure eight track.”

The SOKY Fair, which draws 25,000 people throughout the week, has been around since 1952, Siegrist said. Proceeds benefit the Bowling Green-Warren County Jaycees, which uses the money for a variety of local charities, including the Christmas Shopping Tour for about 50 underprivileged children, Western Kentucky University scholarships for five local graduates, Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Bowl for Kids Sake and the Family Enrichment Center’s Run and Walk for Kids.

“(The fair has endured) because of its ability to give back to the community through the Jaycees,” Siegrist said.

Beauty pageants have become some of the biggest events, said SOKY pageant chairwoman Tara Griffith, who has been in charge of the events for the past 10 years.

“We had over 700 people come to watch the pageants last year. We had 210 participants,” she said. “We had 42 women compete in the Miss SOKY Fair Pageant. It was the largest (pageant) in the entire state.”

The SOKY Fair has boasted recent contestants who have gone on to be winners in the state’s Teen, Miss and Mrs. pageants. The local pageants have become so popular that publicizing of dates for the events begins in February, Griffith said.

“As early as mid-April, we have a website,” she said.

Griffith said she brings in out-of-state judges for the pageants.

“Girls who want to go to the state pageants go to every single pageant,” she said. “Contestants (in the SOKY Fair pageants) know they will get a fair shake. They’re not going to get (a judge) who sees them over and over again.”

Griffith said she wants the pageants to be fun.

“People always think of beauty queens as the ambassadors at the other (fair) events for the remainder of the week,” she said.

— For more information about the fair and the pageants, call 842-7980 or visit www.sokyfair.org. Preregistration for the pageants continues through Friday. Contestants can also register Sunday at the door.

Fair schedule

Sunday

1 p.m.: Beauty pageants for ages 0 to adult at Warren Central High School.

Monday

5 p.m.: Beef show

7 p.m.: Lawnmower Demolition Derby

Tuesday

11 a.m.: Lamb and goat show

7 p.m.: Compact Figure 8 Race, events on stage

Wednesday

10 a.m.: Dairy show

7 p.m.: Truck pull

Thursday

6 p.m.: SOKY Bed Race

7 p.m.: Figure 8 Race and karoake contest

Friday

7 p.m.: Demolition Derby and On the Stage

Saturday

7 p.m.: Tractor Pull and Band Aaron King

Crossroads IGA Pro Fisherman Dallas Carter