The most numerous exhibits are
traction engines,
tractors and farm machinery, but there are also sections for classic cars and commercial vehicles, working
shire horses, rustic crafts, 'bygones' displays, and more. The show also has a market,
autojumble, live music and
funfair (some of which is powered by the steam engines). The funfair has traditional rides such as
gallopers and steam boats, as well as modern ones like the "World Fair Wheel" which was sited in
Manchester for the millennium. It is the biggest gathering of
fairground organs in the UK. The show regularly attracts around 200,000 visitors, and there can be 30,000 people on site, making the fair the fifth largest population centre in Dorset, after
Bournemouth,
Poole,
Weymouth and
Christchurch (the population of the historic town of
Dorchester being only half that number). A speciality of the show is the display of traction engines and
steam rollers performing the work for which they were designed. Such displays include heavy haulage,
threshing, sawing logs,
ploughing and road-making. The main arena of the show is purposely sited on the slope of a hill to allow both steam- and internal combustion-powered machinery to demonstrate their capacity for heavy load hauling. Since 2003, the show has contracted its own radio station, Steam Fair FM, broadcasting 24 hours daily on 87.9 FM from the Sunday prior to the show, to the Tuesday following – ten days in all. The station, which is also streamed on the internet, covers show news and views, weather and other relevant information with plenty of listener dedications and a format of "Vintage Hits". During the event, the station is advertised on roads in the surrounding area and provides traffic news for drivers using the A354 Blandford to Salisbury road that passes the show site. For the 40th anniversary, in 2008, the organisers recreated the very first fair, by tracing all of the exhibits that were displayed at the 1969 show. ==Dorset Sound Festival==