The Topsham Fair returned to the fairgrounds this week for a celebration of the region’s agricultural heritage.

The Topsham Fair, marking its 170th year, features a wide range of activities, including ox pulling, riverside woodcarving demonstrations, goat milking demonstrations, harness racing and music of all sorts.

“For the horse racing, people come in from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Nova Scotia,” said Leon Brillant, president of the Topsham Fair Board of Directors.

Chris Marcoux, owner of Marcoux Family Farm, inside the Maple Shack at the Topsham Fair on Tuesday, Aug. 6. Paul Bagnall / The Times Record

According to Brillant, the fair brought in between 33,000 and 35,000 visitors during the week last year, and he hopes the weather will hold out for a bigger turnout this year.

Some new offerings at the Topsham Fair this year include the Axe Women Loggers of Maine, the Maple Sugar Shack and a poultry display, which features many different types of birds, from the expected chickens and turkeys to pigeons.

The sugar shack sells pancake mixes, maple syrup, maple candies, maple sugar and maple drops.

“It’s a great opportunity for the Maine Maple Producers Association and for us as a local sugar producer in the Midcoast area,” said Chris Marcoux, owner of veteran-owned Marcoux Family Farm in Wiscasset.

Brian Read holds a pigeon inside the barn for the poultry display of the Central Maine Bird Fanciers during the Topsham Fair. Paul Bagnall / The Times Record

Marcoux talked with fair visitors about the process of producing maple products in the small shack on the Topsham Fairgrounds. He said one of the most common questions he gets is how many gallons of sap it takes to make a gallon of maple syrup, which is typically 38–40 gallons of sap for one gallon of maple syrup.

It was Marcoux’s first time at the Topsham Fair, and he saw it as an excellent opportunity to introduce fair visitors to his maple products. Two other Maine maple producers are attending the Topsham Fair, the Raiders Sugarhouse from South China and Hilltop Boilers from Newfield.

The Central Maine Bird Fanciers’ poultry display was in a barn by the performance stage.

Vice President of Pigeons Brian Read said they had been asked to do a poultry show at the Topsham Fair for several years and have also done the Union Fair and Winsor Fair in the past. Read said an opening presented itself when the Union Fair changed its schedule.

The Central Maine Bird Fanciers usually display a few hundred birds for a contest, but this year, they have scaled it down to roughly 60 birds.

The Topsham Fair runs all week and ends Sunday, Aug. 11.