Crowds began to gather, filling the area around the show. Two men challenged gravity before the crowd’s eyes.

These are the Flippin’ Acrobats.

Performer Ivan Espana and his teammate ran, flipped and jumped inside and outside of an unnetted infinity wheel.

“I’ve been doing it so long … it’s like second nature. I do get sometime more nervous depending on the wind or the weather — I have fun with it,” Espana said.

Despite almost falling a couple times, Espana kept his balance while jump roping on the top of the infinity wheel as well as performing front flips inside.

“Five generations in this type of entertainment, it started with theater, and then traveling theater, then the circus, and then went on from there. It’s basically what I know how to do,” Espana said.

Oscar the Robot greets the people that he finds around the fairgrounds. He has been at the state fair for 23 years.

“I get to have fun with all the boys and girls, moms and dads,” Oscar said.

Oscar takes pictures with anyone who approaches him while he rolls around on his robotic wheels. He is kind and talks to everyone he sees.    

The robot is operated by a controller that speaks into a microphone near Oscar.   

Benji is a service dog, specialized in helping people with a disability. He is part of the KSDS organization.

“He started his training when he was three days old. He went to a puppy raiser at eight weeks of age where they do basic house manners… They come back to us at 18 months, and that’s when we started training Benji for about 6 to 9 months,” Annette Metz said.

Metz is part of KSDS. She stayed with Benji at their booth located in the Pride of Kansas building. Benji is not yet 2-years-old, but is going to be placed with a new owner. He is trained to be a brace for the new owner in the event that they fall.

“He’ll be placed, here in October, with a lady that has mobility issues … He will retrieve dropped items, tug open doors, push automatic buttons, get things out of the fridge for her,” Metz said.

Behind the wood carving table sits Carl and Virginia Pilcher, who have been married 57 years.

The two smiled as they shared what brought them together.

“Well, first of all, we got into wood carving in 1992, in Branson, Silver Dollar City. They have a week-long seminar,” Carl said. “At that time my wife would go into town and go shopping. This went on for several years, and after a while she owned half of Branson.”

Carl and Virginia both grinned as they reminisced with a light-hearted attitude.

“Anyways she got tired of shopping. She took a beginning wood-carving class. I lent her some tools and then after she had been in the beginning class she came back and said to me ‘I need a better knife’,” Carl said.

The two now display their creations for all fairgoers to see.