Performers at State Fair have reality-show flavor

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The major entertainment at this year’s North Carolina State Fair has a reality-show flavor.

The fair opens Thursday at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh and continues through Oct. 25. Performing Saturday is Kellie Pickler, an Albemarle native who placed sixth during the fifth season of Fox’s “American Idol.”

Julianne Hough sings Oct. 21. She’s best known as a professional dancer on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” where she won the competition twice, once with Olympic gold medal-winning speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno and then again with three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves.

And the next evening, Oct. 22, Chapel Hill’s Anoop Desai performs. He placed sixth on the most recent season of “American Idol.”

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)