Pictured from Left to Right: Fair Queen Carly Xox, Junior Princess Lauren Boelling, Runner Up Lorin Mart and 2022 Fair Queen Ashley Kearney

The Marion County Fair Royalty Contest will be held Saturday evening at Dyer Hudson Hall.

The event will start at 6:00 pm and the community can come out to see the crowning of this year’s Marion County Fair Queen, King, and Jr. Princess. The 2024 Marion County Fair Queen candidates include Jayden Weldon, Marley Larson, Karlie Pettyjohn, Riley Reid, and Hailey Hendrickson, the king candidates include Cael Irving, and Dillion Hall, and the Jr. Princess candidates include Kaylee Figland, Kinsley Wooldridge, Luxie Becker, Allison Downing, Adalynn Downing, and Maeya Wilson. 2022 Marion County Fair Queen and current event coordinator Ashley Kearney said after adding the princess competition last year, they wanted to continue trying new things by adding a king this year.

“I’ve heard for the past few years a lot of people talking about maybe adding a king contest, and as I’m taking over as coordinator this year I just kind of wanted to implement that. Also, last year’s fair queen Carly Cox came to me and talked about adding a fair king contest because she had heard talk about wanting it, so I thought maybe it was time to add one especially because the jr. princess contest went so well, and people really enjoyed seeing her at fair. I just thought it was a great time to start adding new things.”

KNIA/KRLS’s Spencer Dirks will be the MC for the contest Saturday night. Hear more from Kearney on today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.