FRYEBURG – Two thousand trash barrels are emptied every day at the Fryeburg Fair.

Now who would have that type of information available off the top of his head?

“It takes a lot of people to make it work,” said Roy Andrews, president of the West Oxford Agricultural Society, which runs Maine’s largest agricultural fair in Fryeburg each year.

“Our most valuable assets are the people,” said Andrews of the enormous work it takes to run 40 departments doing everything from emptying trash barrels to putting out a payroll for the 600 or so employees that work the fair each year.

Many of the people are from the Fryeburg area. “If it weren’t for the people from the area, we wouldn’t have this going,” said Andrews as he walked around the livestock barns – some of the 100 buildings on the fairgrounds – stopping to chat with a exhibitor or to answer a concern of an employee.

“There’s hundreds of tiny details in each department,” he said of such jobs as building and grounds, advertising, tickets, publicity, 4-H livestock clubs, events, signs, video production and a myriad of other “details.”

Andrews, who grew up on a dairy farm and worked as a farmer in Fryeburg, has been attending the fair for decades. Although he only lives a half-mile from the fairgrounds, you won’t see him walking with the 40,00 to 45,000 thousand people, including the 5,000 campers, who come the the fair daily.

“I never walk when I can get a ride,” he chuckled.

As fair president Andrews not only has to deal with the details of running the fair, but he also gets in on the fun. This week he had the honor of introducing his lifelong friend Mildred Heath, a 98-year-old skillet thrower, who’s been coming to the fair for the past 75 years.

“She’s kind of in a class by herself,” he said of Heath who entered Monday’s skillet-throwing contest.

While the officers and trustees of the fair don’t have to work as hard during the winter, Andrews said there are still plenty of things to do not only to prepare for the next year’s fair but to coordinate the society’s 70 other activities such as summertime youth programs.

Andrews marvels at the success of the 157th annual fair himself. “This a little town of 3,000 with one traffic light,” he says voice trailing off as he turns to greet another fairgoer.