People visiting the 18th annual Mason-Dixon Fair on opening night Monday could find the usual things at a community fair – rides, games, livestock exhibitions and motor sports – but if they were looking, they could also find characters from the mega-popular Pokemon Go electronic game.
Pokemon Go, based on the hit Pokemon television, video game and trading card series, was released July 6 as a downloadable smartphone app. Players travel throughout their communities to find the electronic Pokemon characters, and they win points when the GPS-based app guides them to a particular spot.
Pokemon Go characters can be found throughout the nation, including on the Mason-Dixon fairgrounds in Delta, Pa., just north of the Maryland-Pennsylvania line, also known as the Mason-Dixon Line.
"There's a ton of them here," Allie Evans, 20, of York County, Pa., said.
Evans said she found about five characters when she arrived at the fairgrounds. She was there to work at a game booth where players could throw darts and try to pop balloons.
As opening night wound down, she pointed out a spot near the gate of the Bear Affair midway ride where people found an Eevee, and "everybody freaked out."
The real-world games, such as the dart game Evans was running, were just as popular among fair-goers who hailed from Harford County and southeastern Pennsylvania.
"Everyone seems to be having a lot of fun," Evans said. "I like it."
Water Wars was another popular game at the fair. Two players each got a bucket of water balloons, which they placed in slingshots and fired at each other. Each player stood under a slotted structure, to which the slingshot was attached, and they got wet when the balloons hit the roof of the structure or landed at their feet.
"This is my first time being here, and I'm having a lot of fun," Victoria Whitting, 13, of Street, said. "I think the Water Wars were my favorite."
She played Water Wars against her friend and North Harford Middle School classmate, 13-year-old Jordan Griffey, of Pylesville. She and Jordan attended the fair with Jordan's parents, Lisa and Tom Griffey Sr., and the Griffeys' grandson, 5-year-old Maynard Freburger.
The Griffeys attend the fair each year.
"We're local and it's a great chance for us to get to see our friends that, because of our busy lives, you don't get a chance to see," Lisa Griffey said.
She said they often see cousins and other relatives, and the fair is "almost like a little family reunion."
The six-day fair opened with the brightly-lit games and rides, fair food such as popcorn, cotton candy and funnel cakes, the Fair Princess contest, an auction of baked goods including cakes and pies, dirt bike races and livestock viewings.
Fairgoers could see farm animals such as cows, goats and sheep as they relaxed in their pens and their young owners tended to them.
Taylor Flahart, 11, of Lancaster County, Pa., sat with and petted her two white market lambs.
This year is her third showing at the Mason-Dixon Fair. She has won prizes in the past for her Pygmy goats.
"We just show for fun," Taylor said.
She said the Mason-Dixon Fair is a good venue to get livestock, and their handlers, ready for larger fairs in the region. She and her fellow exhibitors go through judging and learn "what we need to be working on," such as improving the animals' muscles and bones.