ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Labor Day weekend is nearing, and for more than a century in the small town of Kismet, the weekend has marked the time for one of the area’s most well-known celebration.
The 106th edition of the Little World’s Fair kicks off Saturday, Aug. 30, and runs through Labor Day Monday, Sept. 1, with plenty of fun for everyone.
“I can’t believe a small community like Kismet can pull off something like this that lasts so long. We’re really proud of that,” LWF organizer Brett Reiss said.
Much of what will take place over three days, Reiss said, are returning favorites, as the event is steeped in tradition, but this year’s LWF will feature a new activity based on a classic game show.
“We are going to do the Newlywed Game,” he said. “We’re going to have some local celebrities participate, and it’ll be not just newlyweds. We’ll have some newlyweds, but also some seasoned couples. We’re going to have a lot of fun doing that for our entertainment on Sunday evening.”
Reiss said the Newlywed Game will provide much in the way of laughter and fun, but the Labor Day weekend celebration kicks off Saturday evening, Aug. 30, with a trap shoot fundraiser for the Southwestern Heights shooting sports team.
Reiss said a full list of activities can be found on the Kismet Little World’s Fair Facebook page, and for this year’s theme, organizers borrowed a phrase from the town’s nearby neighbor, Liberal, the official home of Dorothy Gale.
“This year’s theme is ‘Kismet, there’s no place like home!’” he said. “We’ve got some T-shirts for sale that remind people of Kismet and home with a grain elevator that’s on the T-shirt with the logo. It looks like Kismet.”
Also taking place on Saturday evening is an ice cream social and a showing of “The Wizard of Oz,” both taking place at the Kismet Methodist Church.
“Everyone’s encouraged to come and watch that,” Reiss said. “That thing has grown, and we’re getting more and more people on the lawn. It’s a fun relaxing night.”
Sunday morning, Aug. 31, starts with a worship service at 9:30 a.m. again at Kismet Methodist Church, followed by the Taste of Kismet at the Pavilion at 11:45 a.m.
“That’s $5 per plate,” Reiss said. “Everybody brings their best dish. There’s going to be lots of food there.”
Drawings will take place every 15 minutes starting at noon throughout Sunday for cash prizes and gift cards. One of the newer favorites at the LWF, the 3 on 3 basketball tournament, will start at 2 p.m. at Kismet Elementary School. That time, Reiss said, has changed from past years.
“That has really grown a lot,” he said. “We get a lot of kids who come and play in that, and we were finding the tournament was lasting too long and started interfering with some of the evening events like the kids cornhole, the community church service and entertainment.”
The tournament will feature divisions for boys and girls age high school and older and those of junior high age and younger. Reiss too said other activities will be taking place throughout Sunday afternoon and evening on Kismet’s Main Street.
“Hat Creek Butchery is going to be running their hamburger stand,” he said. “They’ll be opening up at 4 o’clock.”
Sunday at 5:30 p.m., the Methodist Church will again have a church service, this time at the Pavilion, and this service is coordinated by pastors from that church and Plains’s Cornerstone Church.
The church service will be followed by a cornhole tournament starting at 7 p.m.
“We’ll have some good lights available in case that tournament goes into the evening,” Reiss said. “They are doing a couple different divisions. It’s a $20 team novice division where you can bring your own partner, or they’ll have another tournament for $40. It’s going to be a competitive division with a blind draw. You show up, and you don’t know who you’re going to get. Folks need to register before that.”
Capping off Sunday night will be bingo in the Pavilion at 8:30 p.m. and a street dance starting at 9 p.m.
“Throughout the evening, there’ll be vendors selling drinks and beverages, food set up there on Main Street,” Reiss said.
Of course, the primary focus of the weekend is Labor Day, and Reiss said that day’s fun starts early.
“We start the morning out early at 6:30,” he said. “There’s the registration for the kids 1K and the 5K and 10K. It’s the Mark Verhoff Memorial. Mark was a longtime leader in the Little World’s Fair races. He coordinated that for several years before he passed away. That’s taking place at the Kismet grade school.”
Reiss said the run is usually well attended, and it provides a nice way to enjoy a cool morning for runners.
Around 9 a.m., bounce houses will be set up in downtown Kismet, and lineup for the LWF parade will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the north end of Main Street. Reiss said parade participants need not call ahead to take part in the parade.
“Just show up at 9:30,” he said. “It’s free to enter the parade.”
Food wise, sno cones and homemade ice cream will be available, but Reiss did advise these treats do sell out quickly. The parade itself will begin at 10:30 a.m., and the organizer said for a small town, Kismet has a wonderful parade.
“It usually lasts an hour, and kids come away with sacks full of candy,” he said. “It’s very well attended. We’re really proud of the parade we put on. All sorts of activities will be taking place after the parade downtown around the Pavilion, kids activities, a free ham and bean feed.”
Labor Day afternoon includes the always fun turtle races, and Liberal’s Keating Tractor will sponsor a kids tractor pull starting at 1 p.m. and donate some great prizes for the young people. Reiss said the fun continues after that, though.
“We have some raffles that are going on,” he said. “We have a gun raffle. Hat Creek Butchery has donated a beef bundle. There’s a drawing for that, and we also have a 50/50 raffle. Those drawings will take place at 3 o’clock. You don’t have to be present to win, and we conclude the weekend at 3:30, 4 o’clock. We usually have a frozen T-shirt contest, the slatting races and water balloon contest to wrap it up. There’s always prizes for the participants and winners in these events.”
Reiss said Kismet’s Labor Day weekend celebration would not be possible without community support from volunteers putting in time to put on the events that make up the Little World’s Fair.
“It seems like there are fewer and fewer of us taking on more and more,” he said. “If anybody feels like getting involved with a wonderful community service, Kismet Volunteers is a great place to stir that enthusiasm to help continue the legacy of the Kismet Little World’s Fair.”
Reiss too praised community members for their financial support to help put on the weekend’s events and provide money and other prizes for kids.
“It takes a lot,” he said. “We live in a community that’s very generous and gives very generously, and we’re blessed so many in our community who help us financially so we can make sure the Kismet Little World’s Fair continues for generations to come.”
The 2020 Census showed Kismet had a population of 340, but Reiss said on Labor Day weekend, the town takes on a much different look.
“The town triples in size for the parade,” he said. “It’s exciting to see all the rural Kismet citizens come into town, folks from Plains and Liberal. We’re three communities, but we really are one. It’s wonderful to see people come from out of town to come back home to Kismet, whether they lived there for a long period of time or a short period of time. Kismet’s always been a home for many. It’s a welcoming community that loves to have people come back who have moved off.”
As many area communities do for local celebration, Reiss said flags are put up for the weekend in Kismet, and he described what takes place during the weekend, particularly Monday morning, as chaos.
“We have the band students showing up, and we have semi trucks for the truck show, farm equipment, antique farm equipment, antique cars, our local officials, our representatives and politicians show up,” he said.
The north end of Kismet in particular, Reiss said, is controlled chaos.
“There are a lot of people in town for this event, and that’s what makes it worth it,” he said. “All the time it takes to put an event on like this is worth it once that crowd shows up Monday morning and we see all the smiles and all the fellowship and the good times that are had for young and old. That’s what makes the weekend worth it.”
Reiss said many of those who come to the LWF do so from out of state, and many of those have a tie to Kismet itself.
“We have folks from Oklahoma, Colorado come all the time,” he said. “A lot of times, they attended as a kid and want to come back and re-experience the Little World’s Fair. There’s a lot of memories that are made as a child at an event like this, and a rewarding part of continuing this legacy is building those memories for the next generation.”
For more information about this year’s LWF, visit the Kismet Little World’s Fair Facebook page.
“They can scroll through there,” Reiss said. “We have all sorts of information, our schedule of events. There’s flyers on there that will give information about the gun raffle, the events that are taking place, the 3 on 3 basketball. We put out some special flyers for some of the bigger events.”
In addition to all of this information, the schedule for the LWF likewise includes phone numbers for those in charge of events such as the 3 on 3 basketball tournament, parade and turtle races.
“If people have any questions, they can reach out to anyone of us who are on there, and we can get them lined out and going the right way,” Reiss said.
When this year’s Little World’s Fair comes to a close, Reiss said a brief period of rest will take place prior to planning for next year’s event.
“Whenever the parade is over, you wonder if you’ll have the energy to do it again for the next year, but when this time comes, Labor Day is the turning of the page for me,” he said. “It’s that transition from summer to fall. As a farmer, we slow down a little right here, and I consider it our last hurrah. It gives us a chance to relax, socialize, see people, have some fun, share in some laughs because we know hard work is right around the corner. Every year when we get done, we’re exhausted, but about a month and a half later, we get re-energized to see how can we make next year successful and how can we continue this legacy.”
At this time, however, Reiss said he is simply excited for this year’s Little World’s Fair.
“We have a lot of fun events, something for everybody,” he said. “I encourage people to come check it out, have some fun, some enjoyment for the weekend.”
Labor Day’s portion of the Kismet celebration will end about 4 p.m., bringing the weekend’s festivities to a close, and as volunteers clean up, Reiss said some may wonder what they have gotten themselves into in regards to helping out with the LWF, but still they carry on with the work needed to put on the event.
“We sleep so well that night because we’re exhausted mentally, physically, but after a little recovery, it’s like what are we going to do next year,” he said.
