OXFORD — Young children were evident just about everywhere at the Oxford Fair on Saturday — get-in-free day for children under 10.

And 4-year-old Eva Brown of Windsor fit right into the fair’s laid-back country atmosphere. She sported a purple cowgirl hat laced with flashy trim, a shirt covered in multi-colored hearts and black pants tucked into sporty, hot-pink cowgirl boots, complete with dangling pink rawhide strips.

Brown, who shyly stood holding mom Sarah Brown’s hand, said she had one thing on her mind: to ride the merry-go-round. Oh, and to check out the bull-riding, mom said.

The bull-riding event would close out the fair later Saturday evening.

Sarah Brown said they also came to cheer on their friends, musicians in the Augusta-based band Emerald Sky, who were competing for $25,000 and first place in the “Country Up” band contest finale.

“This fair is great,” Sarah Brown said. “We love it. This is very different from a lot of Maine fairs because they have bull-riding and a battle of the country bands.”

Emerald Sky, an aggressive, modern country band, performs originals and songs from the likes of Toby Keith, Blackhawk and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

As mother and daughter watched Saturday, the band performed “Proud to be An American” on stage about 100 feet away in front of a good crowd.

“They made it through preliminaries on Friday and today they’re competing against the final band,” Brown said. “This means a lot to them because they’re all about the crowd, so I try and support them the best I can, because they are great people.”

About 10 minutes earlier, just down the fairway from the Browns, young “Dunk A Firefighter” hawker Chris Whittemore of Norway was competing for attention with the band, shouting into his bullhorn, “Come dunk the firefighter! Four balls for a dollar!”

Firefighters, including Deputy Chief William Buffington, were taking turns in the dunk tank to raise money for the Paris Firemen’s Relief Association while mostly children — well-trained in ball-throwing — lined up to keep them wet.

As Emerald Sky switched to Pure Prairie League’s “Amie,” the crowd at the dunk tank began to grow.

One little boy missed the round target with his first throw and then dinged it with the next two throws to wild applause from his mother. His sister did equally well. Then it was Buffington’s turn, but before he climbed into the tank, he attempted a good-natured, “You better not dunk me” tactic with the next young girl in line.

The girl complied, though not for lack of trying. Two of her tosses hit the target but weren’t strong enough to trigger it.

Huffington told her to get another ball and try again, but she wasn’t having any of that. Instead, she ran to the target and punched it solidly with her right fist. Splash! went Huffington, to the crowd’s amusement.

Volunteer ticket-seller Tiffany Twitchell said at the walk-in gate that a “pretty good crowd” of families with young children had attended the fair.

“The parking lot has been full and we’ve had a good amount of kids, and they’re really enjoying themselves,” Twitchell said. “Today’s definitely been the day for them to come out, because the weather’s been perfect.”

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