On Thursday, August 15, the corn dogs come to town. So does the Ferris wheel, Robinson’s racing pigs, goat and swine exhibits, woodsmen’s competition, chop stick knitting contest, the list just keeps going on and on as the 152nd Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Livestock Show and Fair begins.

The fair runs from Thursday through Sunday, August 18, on the grounds of the Agricultural Hall, 35 Panhandle Road in West Tisbury. The hours are 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

The annual event both harkens back to the Vineyard’s agrarian roots and celebrates the continued allegiance to agriculture on the Island. It is never musty, an event of merely bygone days, but rather a marriage of past and present, both comforting and a lot of fun.

The call of the carnival barker, the bleating of sheep and the squeals of kids taking home a blue ribbon for their prize tomato, wood carving or perfect pie never ceases to ease even the most harried vacationer or Islander. The fair makes technological advances seem so, well, boring. Stop and smell the manure — it can be fertilizer for your soul. Or get inspired by those ladies competing in the skillet toss, nothing like kicking butt in and out of the kitchen.

Last one to the funnel cake is a rotten egg.