Normally around this time of year fair season is getting underway.
There are county fairs with their hard-working 4-H clubs, taking extra special care of their farm animals in the hopes of winning a blue ribbon.
And there are state fairs with big rides, famous musicians and enough fried foods to make your cardiologist cry.
But like so many other events this year, fairs have been canceled, with the hopes that next year will be different.
Some types of events are getting virtual equivalents.
A book event, for example, is pretty straightforward, because you can talk to the people on Zoom or Skype mostly the way you’d talk to them in the bookstore or library.
And some musical events have been able to switch over to a livestream as well.
But for a fair, you kind of need to be able to walk around and take in the whole experience: the animals, the rides, the games, the dude selling blacklight posters of the Grateful Dead.
The 4-H group In Morris County, New Jersey, has found a way to bring that experience online.
They’ve used the world-building capabilities of the game Minecraft to build a virtual 4-H fair for virtual fairgoers to walk around.
The virtual fair includes guided tours, games, building challenges, even fireworks!
While it’s not quite the same as a physical fair, the group says what the fair is really about is getting together to create something they can share and enjoy together, and they’ve definitely done that.
Now if you’re sick of stuff getting canceled and postponed and put off and you just want to SCREAM? Iceland has something for you.
Tourism officials there have set up a website where people can send in sounds of themselves screaming.
Why? Because they’re going to play some of those screams through a series of loudspeakers set up around the country as a way to help people blow off some steam.
Which we all need to do once in a while.
Welcome to the Morris County (Virtual) 4-H Fair! (Rutgers)
Frustrated by lockdown? Iceland offers to release your screams over loudspeaker (Irish Examiner)
Being a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon will make you scream with joy
