2012 State Fair premium books available

Young or old, there is a competition for everyone at the N.C. State Fair. Each year, North Carolinians submit more than 32,000 entries into contests in nearly 50 categories, including everything from horticulture and Web design to culinary arts and livestock. This year, more than $600,000 in prizes will be awarded along with thousands of ribbons and plenty of bragging rights.

The 2012 State Fair Premium Book is now available online at www.ncstatefair.org, and a limited number of hard copies are available at the Administration Building at the N.C. State Fairgrounds at 1025 Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh.

The Premium Book is an important tool for contestants. It includes contest rules, deadlines and judging criteria, as well as other valuable information. For the first time, it has been split into two separate books – one for general entries and a second for livestock.

"Traditionally, premiums, or cash prizes, were offered at the N.C. State Fair as an incentive to encourage agricultural advances," said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. "Over time, more and more categories were added, giving us the diverse offering of competitions we are familiar with today."

Two additional competitions have been added this year. Those are a beer brewing competition, as well as a daily cookie decorating contest for kids. The beer competition will feature 15 varieties of home-brewed and commercially produced beers. The Kids Kookie Dekorating Kontest will be held Oct. 17-20 at 4 p.m. Each afternoon, kids of a different age group will be allowed to decorate cookies for cash prizes and ribbons. Check the 2012 Premium Book for the deadlines of each individual competition.

The 2012 N.C. State Fair runs Oct. 11-21 in Raleigh. For more, go to www.ncstatefair.org.