From Jan.18 to Feb. 3, the South Fla. Fair took over the South Fla. Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach, with roughly 500,000 visitors experiencing all the Fair has to offer: shows, parades, rides, food and games.

This year the theme was “superheroes.” Every day included a hero parade, courtesy of the all the heroes of different fields such as firefighters, doctors and many more first responders.

On Saturday, January 26 was considered home town hero’s day, at 1:00pm on Saturday these small town heroes were able to be recognized in a small parade around the fair.

“This was my first time going to the Fair, and my favorite part was walking around at night and watching the small parades they put on. I got so many beads,” senior Courtney Coleman said.

The South Fla. Fair is known not only for its delicious fair food, including fried Oreos and funnel cakes, but also for coming alive at night when all the rides and games light up the night sky.

“All the food and pretty lights caught my attention the most; they had some interesting stuff that I wish I could [have] tried,” Coleman said.

In addition to the traditional parts of the Fair, the event allows high school students to compete in livestock and horticulture competitions.

Jupiter High’s Future Farmers of America takes part in the Fair each year by displaying a variety of plants grown at the school.

“We put up a display of plants for the Future Farmers of America that was all our plants that were grown by our students,” senior Fred Leno said. “I am going to do the plant identification as well as dairy judging. I picked those competitions because it will be a good refreshment on the industrial certification test.”

Future Farmers America also participated as judges where they rated animals and plants, such as nursery landscapes, cows and horses.

“We prepare for this for this competition by studying over 100 plants and 50 pest and plant diseases, and 60 tools used in the industry,” FFA vice president Sky Henderson said.