2015 Agriculture Fair for Tongatapu

This was quite the event here in Tonga.  They have one of these on each island at different times.  The one on Tongatapu was August 21-22, 2015.  We went to it on the 21st as everyone said that is the time to go.  On the 22nd most everyone is packing up and going home.  This fair is like a big County Fair that we have, but there is a lot of fish that has been caught on display to be judged and inspected by the King.  There are also, cows, horses,pigs, chickens, and fresh produce, as well as crafts of all kinds that will be for sale once the King has inspected them.  It was amazing what was there.  Following are some pictures of the day, we hope that you enjoy them as much as we had taking them.

There were some amazing fish at this fair.  We thought Tyson, Jason and Mason would be interested in these pictures!  How would you like to catch something like this?

Or how about one of these?

We thought the Grand daughters would like this little seahorse!

They had this fellow in a make shift pond, but we are sure someone will have turtle soup after the judging!

Like we said there were a lot of fish on display!

Here are some octopus.  Don't they look appetising?

Here we go, some yummy lobster!

How about this one, Mason, would you like to latch on to this?

Here are just a few of the thousands of hand woven mattes and other items.  They were so beautiful!

This is a large tapa cloth that is made out of bark.  It is amazing how much work goes into something like this!

Here are a couple of women making tapa cloth.  They pound the bark into strips and then glue the strips together to make items out of it. 

This is a dress made from tapa.  Everything including the flowers are made from tapa.  It was so beautiful.  There must have been hours and hours went into this!

Here are the chickens that they had on display along with other animals.

Of course the Tongan pig.  We could not have a fair with out a Tongan pig!

This was a group of professional performers that sing and dance.  Elder and Sister Beckstrand fixed quite a few of their teeth so they put a special little show on for them right there!

There were some amazing wood carvings here.  Tonga has such talented wood carvers.  We always love looking at the beautiful items they have created from a piece of wood.

This was an old tree stump, turned into an octopus.  A hotel has purchased it for a great amount of money.  It was amazing!

This is what they laid out for the King to walk on as he made his way around to all the booths to inspect all the items.  This was all tapa cloth! 

Here was the cutest little group of children all dressed in Tongan attire to perform for the King.

"Would the marathon runner feel the triumph of finishing the race had she not felt the pain of the hours of pushing against her limits?  Would the pianist feel the joy of mastering an intricate sonata without the painstaking hours of practice?"  Dieter F. Uchtdorf