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WINSTON-SALEM — The Carolina Classic Fair — North Carolina’s second-largest agricultural fair — is accepting entries for a wide variety of competitive exhibits including apple decorating, cookie and cake baking, collections, Legos and much more. All entries must be submitted by Sept. 1 for this year’s fair, which will take place in Winston-Salem from Oct. 4-13.

The Carolina Classic Fair has added several new competitive categories for prizes this year, including pillowcase dress, embroidery, sleeping eye mask, no-bake cookies, diamond art, decorated cookies, youth gardening, senior class essays and poems, dog/cat clothing and professional canning. The fair also is introducing a new category for decorative pepper baskets in memory of Edward “Eddie” Hernandez, a longtime exhibitor who died unexpectedly in September 2023.

New for 2024, the Carolina Classic Fair will award prize money for pumpkins and watermelons by the pound. For example, a winning 1,000-pound pumpkin could earn $2,000 in prize money.

In addition, the fair will offer a new contest called “Caps for Cancer.” Caps entered should be made of soft, stretchy fabric such as fleece to be more comfortable. All caps will be donated to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center following the fair for distribution to cancer patients.

“There’s a competition for everyone at the Carolina Classic Fair, and I encourage anyone to enter who has an interest or hobby related to our competitive exhibits. We’re particularly excited about our new Caps for Cancer contest to assist those in need,” Carolina Classic Fair Director Cheryle Hartley said. “Participating in the Carolina Classic Fair competitions and seeing the results are always among our annual highlights. The competitions are right at the top of my list of personal favorites at the Carolina Classic Fair.

“Our overall competition theme this year is ‘America,’ and we’re looking forward to seeing plenty of red, white and blue included in entries such as wreaths, Christmas trees and even essays and poems.”

Any type of political messaging or affiliation will be immediately disqualified.

“The great thing is that you don’t have to be a professional to enter our competitions,” Hartley said. “People at all different experience levels participate in all our categories. It is not surprising to have a novice win a prize. Best of all, those who enter could win a share of the more than $225,000 in prize money that we’re offering this year.”

In addition to fine art, crafts, floriculture, culinary, wine, decorated holiday tree, and essay competitions — to name just some of the many categories — the Carolina Classic Fair offers a wide range of livestock competitions, including beef, dairy, sheep, lamb and poultry categories. Most of the livestock awards also are given in youth categories. There are no entry fees except for the livestock and wine competitions.

For more information and to access entry forms, go to carolinaclassicfair.com/competitive-entries.