Fair events changing with shorter schedule, animal shows mostly the same

That results in the fair opening on Saturday, Sept. 10, and ending on Thursday, Sept. 15.

“We were trying to be more fiscally responsible and seeing if shortening the fair to a six-day fair instead of an eight-day fair would be more fiscally responsible for us,” said Pam Goll, fair board president. “We historically have had days where there’s not a lot of traffic at the fair in the evenings because our fair is during school.”

With the animal shows happening mostly on the weekend through Tuesday, the fair had shorter attendance later in the week.

The board decided to try the shorter fair for a year and see how it goes.

All the animal shows will be the same time as usual, Goll said, with the sole exception of the rabbit show, which moved from Tuesday to Monday morning.

Shortening the fair resulted in some changes, especially at the grandstand.

“The demo derby will be the first Saturday, on the 10th,” Goll said. “The truck pulls will be on Sunday.”

The band show will be on Monday, cheer competition on Tuesday and harness racing will be on Wednesday.

The livestock sale will open the last day of the fair while a rodeo will close it in the evening.

Reaction to these changes have been mixed, Goll said.

“I think there’s been some trepidation because, you know, the world doesn’t like change,” she said. “I know when it was first discussed, there were some people who didn’t want it to be changed.”

In fact, some of the youth involved in the fair created a petition they presented to the board.

Goll said the board looked at the petition and the youth’s reasoning and senior fair board members were given a chance to change their mind on shortening the fair, but chose not to.

Although the youth weren’t in favor, she said the vendors and concessionaires were happy with the change, even those who have been there for several years.

“They had periods of time where they didn’t have a lot of business, so they’re hoping that reducing (days) changes that up,” she said.

Goll said several counties across the state have shortened their fairs this year and encouraged everyone to give it a chance.

“Come out and support everyone, support the youth that put a lot of time and energy into their projects,” she said. “We’ve redone the 4-H building this year, we had the whole inside of it remodeled, so the displays should be nice.”