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STATE FAIR PARK — Dominic Bardales, a first-grader at Grand Island's West Lawn Elementary School, represents the future of the Nebraska State Fair.
He was chosen through a Grand Island contest to serve as the fair's junior grand marshal during Monday's Grand Celebration parade.
The shy 6-year-old had never visited the State Fair before Monday, although he had been to the Hall County Fair in Grand Island.
Flanked by his sisters, Olivia, 14, and Sophia, 11, Dominic's eyes were big as he sat in the back of a convertible waiting for the parade to begin. With a line of antique tractors nearby, their engines idling as they waited to join the parade, Dominic said the fair was “loud.”
He said he planned to stay at the fair as long has he could Monday, maybe until it was dark.
He didn't have much to say, but his sisters said he liked the animals and the carnival.
Dominic isn't in 4-H yet, but he is involved with YMCA sports such as soccer and baseball. And he loves to visit a farm in Wakefield, Neb., where he rides a four-wheeler.
He went to his first tractor pull at the Hall County Fair this year, and he likes the rodeo in Hastings, according to information provided by his mother, Vanessa Bardales, and his sisters.
Vanessa Bardales, 32, said she hadn't been to the fair since she was about 11 years old.
“With the location and my work schedule, it was just hard to get here,” she said.
She expects that will change when the fair relocates to Grand Island beginning next year. She expects her family will attend most every year.
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