The Alachua County Fair is celebrating its 40th birthday with a mid-life crisis.
But instead of getting a fast new car, the fair has added new food, rides and an Oktoberfest celebration.
"We wanted to do something different for everybody," said Henry Suminsky, who has been working at the fair since 1985. "Every year, we are looking for new blood and new ideas. Some of us have been doing this for so long it's like, 'OK, how do we change next year?'"
Adding chocolate was the first step, including chocolate-covered kettle corn, bacon, hot dogs and pickles.
The fair also added more rides for children.
"We are trying to get back to good old family ratings," Suminsky said. "Everything is G-rated out here. Anything above that, we want to know about it, so we can stop it."
Fair goer Matthew Perez's 5-year-old granddaughter Seairra's blue eyes lit up when she rode the Crazy Bus.
"It's better than Disney World," Seairra said.
Despite the focus on children, there are still plenty of rides and attractions for adults, Suminsky said.
One adult-oriented event new to this year is Oktoberfest, a German-themed celebration that took place Saturday from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. and will return on Halloween.
The center pole of the 60-by-60-foot tent that houses the Oktoberfest section is surrounded by four flat-screen TVs playing football games.
Kendra Hill, who was in charge of organizing Oktoberfest, said this was added to attract people who wouldn't come to the fair on a Saturday because they wanted to watch a football game.
"It is to attract anyone who wants to drink beer and watch the game," said Hill, who was dressed in a German tavern girl's outfit.
Other aspects of the event also resembled the original German Oktoberfest.
"In every Oktoberfest celebration that I read about on the Internet, they always had the yodeling contest and the chicken dance contest," Hill said.
Her husband, Paul Hill, organized the yodeling competition.
When no one volunteered to compete, he went around the tent and asked people to give him their best yodel.
Using the audience's applause to determine the winner, Sue Maracle triumphed over the competition with her loud and melodious yodel.
She won a beer-shaped Oktoberfest hat and beer-shaped glasses.
Not all of the events in the tent were spared from an American influence.
The first two events held during Saturday's Oktoberfest were the second annual hot-dog eating contests - one for adults and one for children - where contestants scarfed down as many hot dogs as they could in three minutes while listening to the German folk music.
The adult hot-dog eating contest pitted UF student Chris Fell, 24, against the 15-year-old undefeated champion, Tyler Brower.
Brower won by gorging a total of nine hot dogs in comparison to Fell's seven.
"It feels pretty good," Brower said. "I figured I would win."
Each contestant received a trophy with a hot dog on it, and the winners of both competitions received $25.
According to Jesse Lewis, the president and general manager of fair operations, the changes that were introduced to the fair have made the fair better than ever.
"We are betting on it being a whole lot better than last year," Lewis said.
He said that the goal is to have 30,000 to 35,000 people attend the fair over the course of 10 days.
The fair will continue until Nov. 1.
It will open at 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and it will open at noon on Saturdays and Sundays.
