Va. state fair attendance up 4 pct. over 2013

By WTOP Staff
October 9, 2014 | 12:50 PM

DOSWELL, Va. (AP) — Attendance at the State Fair of Virginia increased 4 percent compared to last year’s event.

The fair said Thursday that this year’s 10-day event attracted 238,000 visitors.

Fair spokesman Greg Hicks says in a news release that fair officials incorporated many suggestions made by people who attended the 2013 event.

The fair featured several new events this year, including an NFL-sanctioned punt, pass and kick competition, a Latin music festival and a salute to Secretariat. The Triple Crown winner was born at the Caroline County site that’s now the fair’s home.

School bus emergency? Fairfax County students have a plan to handle it

By Heather Gustafson
August 21, 2026 | 10:05 PM

This story is part of WTOP’s 2026 Back to School coverage. The wheels on the bus will soon be going round and round again in Fairfax County, Virginia, and some of its young riders are learning what to do if there’s an emergency on the way to school. The annual Safety Patrol Training Camp, hosted by Fairfax County Public Schools' Office of Transportation Services, combined hands-on exercises with classroom lessons to teach students how to keep calm during emergencies on buses. The training can feel remarkably realistic, with overturned school buses on their side or completely upside down in the middle of the county bus depot. Other buses, right side up, fill with smoke that is water-based but mimics the intensity of a bus overheating.

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