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"Barnyard Boogie," this year's theme for the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, is reflected in a homegrown "So You Think You Can Dance" contest. Given the television show's popularity, it's a great idea. It also shows off the fair's commitment to variety and booking acts that one might not associate with the amusement park rides, carnival games and pig races.

A perfect example of this is Steve Trash (an alias, of course). He calls himself a green magician, and performs his tricks using garbage. He walks the walk, too. When he's not molding minds in his trademark patched pants and top hat, Trash lives with his wife in an earth-friendly home in rural Alabama.

"I wanted to reach people with comedic, fun entertainment, and I stumbled onto doing tricks with trash," he recalls. "It just really grew into this thing where I was really able to share ecological principles through really high-quality sleight of hand, magic and, in some cases, stage illusions."

Trash grew up in Texas and Alabama, and dreamed of being an actor. Instead of lining up auditions with a stack of headshots under his arm, he hit the streets of New York City, Los Angeles and Tokyo, performing tricks for whoever would pause to watch. Eventually, he began to make a solid living and has appeared on VH1 and CBS Marketwatch as well as in The New York Times. The TV appearances are good exposure, but Trash really enjoys reaching children.

"Probably the greatest thing on the whole planet is a kid laughing out loud. If you can really get at their hearts in a very meaningful way, you can make them laugh," he says.

During his shows, Trash inserts lessons about conservation and sustainability. That doesn't mean his tricks aren't top-notch. The magician takes his craft seriously and invites audiences to stand as close as possible.

"The magic should never suffer from trying to tell the eco message," Trash says. "I'm not going to be a professor. If someone comes to my show, I'm going to be that really cool-looking guy wearing the patchy pants and the top hat, and I'm going to show them some amazing magic tricks. Hopefully, I'll walk in through the back door of their psyche and sprinkle some green seeds in there that will sprout in their minds."

Since starting his career as a green magician in the mid-1980s, Trash says he has witnessed several waves of earth-friendly trends but thinks the current green movement is here to stay.

"People who grew up in the '90s were educated about ecology," he explains. "Those children are now grown up and are executive vice presidents at corporations. They're actually people who can help influence the way businesses make decisions."

On the music side, the fair features several acts that appeared last year. Two of them, teen rockers A+ Dropouts and country singer Tyler Toliver, have come a long way since appearing on the fairgrounds' Racing Stage.

In fact, the Dropouts perform under a different name altogether. When 13-year-old lead singer Cheska Zaine spoke with The Gazette last August, she was fronting a group called The Fuzed. With three new bandmates comes a new a name. The lineup now consists of lead guitarist Jory Luchsinger, bassist Alex Jongbloed and drummer Zach Benson.

The idea remains the same — middle school-aged kids from Northern Virginia playing hard rock songs — but the approach has changed. Their sets used to be filled with nothing but covers like Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" and Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine." Now their own music is beginning to take over, and the recently formed quartet is up to four original tunes with immediate plans to write enough for a full-length album.

"When you write songs, you can kind of put your own emotions into it," observes Jongbloed, 14. "You can really show people how you feel about a certain subject."

The group even shot a music video for the song "Someone New."

"It was a really cool experience," says Zaide. "The song speaks through the video and our different personalities."

A year has also made a big difference for Toliver — in the past six months, he's hired a new manager, established a new website and booked an opening slot for hitmaker Darryl Worley.

"Everything just skyrocketed all of a sudden," he says. "This year, we did more live shows. I got to establish a fan base and talk to people that I want."

Most important, the 21-year-old traveled to Nashville, a trip that offered a chance to lay down several tracks in a professional studio and learn more about the business of country music. He plans to dive in head-first after finishing his service with the U.S. Marine Corps in two years.

"When people say, ‘There's no way like the Nashville way,' it's 100 percent true," he explains. "I wasn't sure what to expect because I had never done it before. We had some of the best players in Nashville working on our project. It was phenomenal how it all came together so fast."

Despite the growing number of fans, Toliver still keeps covers like Garth Brooks'

"Friends in Low Places" and Edwin McCain's "I'll Be" in his repertoire.

"I would say that I haven't got big enough to the point where I can walk in a bar and play all my originals and people know the words," he remarks. "In a live music show, you like to have a good time and sing along."

Once again, Toliver will carry the mainstream country flag at this year's fair. Most of the bands on the schedule are more influenced by pop and rock, and he is happy to oblige. The Manassas, Va., resident plays up to 15 shows a month, but never runs out of steam.

"My energy is always good," he says. "The reason that it stays up there is because the more shows we play, the more people come and the more that motivates me to keep pushing."

IF YOU GO

Steve Trash performs three shows a day between Friday and Aug. 21 at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. Community Square. A+ Dropouts is set for 7 p.m. on Aug. 18 and Tyler Toliver at 5 p.m. Saturday. Both musical acts will perform on the Racing Park Stage. All events take place at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, 16 Chestnut St., Gaithersburg. Call 301-963-FAIR or visit www.mcagfair.com.