At long last, the trilogy draws to a close. In Part One, we examined the foodstuffs and agriculture at this year’s Indiana State Fair. In Part Two, we spotlighted a traveling animation exhibit that visited Indianapolis at just the right time and place.

Part Three divides neatly into two parts, beginning with a tip of the hat to the art of the fairgrounds. Between the advertising fixtures and the 4-H art contests, creativity is in abundant supply if you’re patient enough to search for it.

That being said: Hobbit diorama for the win.

I’m an unabashed fan of wanton displays of faith. To be honest, this was also a refreshing change of pace from the posterboard and clip art that comprise 80% of the competition.

Over in the Agriculture/Horticulture Building, one of the annual traditions is a canned-food sculpture contest. Based on my amateur judgment, canned Homer was the standout. (Mmmmm…canned Homer. *drool*)

This display at the Department of Natural Resources Building wasn’t designed with the same artistic aims in mind, but the title might make an okay B-movie.

In terms of shows: yes, our state fair has some. Show #1: “Wolves of the World”, in which trained wolves did kooky stunts while their coach talked about conservation and nature and wilderness and such. It’s difficult to recall the exact text of her speech because I was distracted by the happy-go-lucky wolf sauntering next to her on a large rolling barrel.

Animal performances are fun to watch, but sometimes terrible to photograph thanks to safety precautions. I suppose I should be grateful that metal bars are slightly less obstructive than the wire mesh I’ve seen enshrouding past shows.

Show #2: the Sinbad High Dive Show. Local readers may have noticed this troupe’s name in recent headlines when one of the players (identified only as “Bobbie”, though I have no idea which one he was) slipped from a diving board during a performance and wound up in the hospital for a few days before returning to work. That was after our visit, though. No sensationalistic injury photos happened on our watch, thankfully.

The pretext of their show is a sort of juvenile kids-birthday-party sketch about pirates searching for the Golden Fleece. The pool is filled with other random objects, much jumping is required, a couple of the divers embodied broad stereotypes, slapstick ensues, and so on. On the plus side: fun diving and bouncing stunts.

The big finish was Pirate Alex plummeting from the highest board in their rigging. The weather wasn’t ideal, but I’m pleased to report Alex survived the experience with flying colors.

2014 will hopefully see a return of the annual Signature Fair Food contest, which skipped this year possibly because the official 2013 fair theme — “The Year of Popcorn” — didn’t lend itself to too many ideas for crazy, unhealthy dishes from the usual vendors. We enjoyed our trip nonetheless.

Thanks for reading. See you next year?