Crews preparing for Durham Fair

 

In just eight days the Durham Fair will be up and running, filled with entertainment from various country bands and artists, vendors from all over the New England region, animal farms for children to enjoy and tons of great food to fill everyone’s stomach. Nevertheless, there’s much work that goes into the fair’s preparation. Assembling tents on the town’s Green and on over 45 acres of land adjacent to it is hardly an easy task. According to Arthur Ortega, president of Prestige Event Services, it takes about a week for a nine to 10 male workforce to construct each structure site. “We started working Sunday,” said Ortega. “The men work about 10 to 12 hours a day from 7 a.m. to about 7 p.m. with a one-hour break at 5:30 p.m.” Ortega said the workers are not just from Prestige Event Services, a Miami-based tent rental company. The company, he said, works collaboratively with temporary labor as well, and on a hot day in September Ortega is no exception. Ortega, dressed in a royal blue company polo shirt, khakis and a hard hat, said he works alongside the other men the entire week. Paul Cook, a worker outsourced from Labor Ready, said he registered for work in both Hartford and Middletown. He said there was no work in Middletown for him so he was sent to Durham on an assignment to work on the construction for the fair. Working long days, Cook said, sort of shows that there’s “a lot of work to be done.” The tent structure on the green is 100ft by 262ft alone. Even First Selectman Laura Francis said the fair pretty much “consumes everything in town.” The year 2011 marks the 10th year Prestige Event Services has worked to construct the foundation for the fair. According to the company web site, it has over 15 years of experience assembling tents for events ranging from “backyard birthday parties to corporate galas.” Even though the fair will be held for four days from Sept. 22 -25, Ortega said he usually only gets to enjoy the fair on its last day and the following day takes it all apart. With being afforded the opportunity to travel the country, Ortega said, he’s worked in countless communities and in Durham he experiences a different kind of community. “There’s a lot of local community here,” said Ortega. “You see the families and people together. You don’t see much of that in a big city.”