Sam Wagner, left, and Nathan Blackwood carry a sign as they finish setting up the Prospect Volunteer Fire Department booth at the Big Butler Fair, which opens Friday. The fair concession is the fire department's best fundraiser of the year, offering meatloaf and chicken dinners, hot dogs, hamburgers, and other fair foods. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle

PROSPECT — The bones of the carnival pulled into the Big Butler Fairgrounds on Monday, and in just a few days, more than 100 tents, booths and rides will be ready to serve legions of fair-goers who visit the fair over the next week-and-a-half.

The Big Butler Fair officially opens Friday for its 166th year, and Harold Dunn, secretary of the Butler Fair and Agricultural Association, said organizers are anticipating a crowd at least equal to the 100,000 paying visitors who attended last year’s fair.

“A small city grows here over the course of a few days,” Dunn said. “We are hopeful that we are able to meet or exceed the crowd we had last year.”

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