ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Fair has come and gone but Belmont County Fair Board President Ed Campbell celebrated the fair’s success.

Campbell said that, despite the lower than normal attendance on Thursday due to rain, the turnout the rest of the week was fantastic.

He said that the fair brought in several new acts this year.

Campbell said that both the Stone Age Show and The Steamers Thrill Show were new editions and were very well received by attendees. He added that the fair added a new building to host the animals that are being shown but not sold to ensure that attendees will be able to get the opportunity to see animals every day of the fair.

This year saw an old tradition come back to the fair. For the first time in more than a decade, the alpaca and llama show returned.

Campbell said that the llama and alpaca shows were phased out many years ago due to a perceived lack of interest.

“We had them at the old fairgrounds and kind of phased them out. But we’re getting a lot more of an interest in it now, so we’re slowly bringing it back,” he said.

Due to the freshness of the show, no llamas were entered, but two alpacas were entered by 10-year-old Union Local Elementary student Waylon Gust. The fourth grader said that he has only been training his two alpacas Harmony and Cirrus for three months.

Gust’s mother Lindsay Gust said the family has been showing market animals — the livestock sold at the fair — for years and Waylon expressed interest in showing animals that came home with the family after the fair instead of being sold.

“He wanted something more like a show animal that would come home with us after the fair, and he’d be able to bring it back next year,” Lindsay Gust said. “Alpacas piqued his interest, so he said that’s what he wanted to do. And we bought a couple of alpacas, and we’re doing it.”

Waylon added that his favorite part of taking care of the alpacas is taking them for walks.

Although Waylon was the only contestant that doesn’t make his victory any less of an accomplishment. He still completed all of the show requirements and was judged on how he was able to control both of his alpacas.

“​​We’ve had these for about three months, and he’s been working with them pretty much daily,” Lindsay said.

Both she and Waylon hope next year’s show will have more participants.

“Winning is fine, but it’s much better when you have some competition. So we are really hoping that we can grow this program out here at the fair,” she said.

Both Gusts agreed that it would be a fun challenge to enter other county fairs to compete, but Lindsay thinks Waylon should get a few more months of training under his belt.

Sunday wrapped up the week-long activities at the fairgrounds, but Campbell said that his team is already working on next year’s fair.

“We booked a couple of the acts back again. We’ll be going to the Ohio Fair Managers conference in January, up in Columbus. And there’ll be dozens of different acts and we’ll go through and we’ll try to find something different for next year,” he said.

In addition to looking towards the future, Campbell said that the Belmont County Fair Board is in the process of purchasing the James E. Carnes Center which sits on the fairgrounds.

In past years, the fair would use the center for various vendors, but Campbell said it became too expensive for the board to rent year after year.

Campbell said he’s excited for the board to purchase the center and plans to remodel it. He added that, while it will be owned and operated by the fair board and used for the fair, it will still be available for community use.

He said that the remodel will see both a groom’s and bride’s dressing room as well as a new walkway to be used during the fair. Although the fair board is in the process of purchasing the center, there is no set date for the purchase to be completed.