Nev. may join Mich. as only states without fair
from:www.victoriaadvocate.com
January 26, 2011
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Nevada soon could join Michigan as the only states in the nation without a state fair.
Organizers of Nevada's 136-year-old fair say its ongoing financial troubles worsened with slumping attendance last August and it likely won't be able to continue this summer without some help.
The nonprofit fair's board of directors scheduled a meeting in Reno Friday to provide details and try to develop ideas to save the event that has been held every year since 1874.
"If we don't fix the situation we're in, in all likelihood there won't be a fair," executive director Rich Crombie said.
"The fair was already in a fragile state going into last year," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Michigan ended its 160-year-old fair last year due to the sour economy.
"We haven't lost any others besides Michigan," said Jim Tucker, president of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions based in Springfield, Mo.
"And it wasn't a failed fair, it was a failed state. The state of Michigan got into serious economic trouble," he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "No others are on the chopping block I have heard of."
Nevada's fair is a state-sanctioned event but receives no state or federal money. It was renamed last year as the Nevada Territory Wild West Fair in an effort to return more to its agricultural roots and spur new interest in the general public.
The bad economy combined with bad weather contributed to the low attendance of about 30,000 people instead of the 50,000 they'd hoped for at the Reno Livestock Events Center just northeast of downtown, Crombie said.
"The fair has kind of been stuck in the mud, which is why we revamped it, but it takes a while to pull it out. It takes time to get it established to where people understand what it is," he said.
Last year's fair still had the traditional carnival midway, food, demolition derby and livestock attractions. But it also included new themes such as Civil War reenactments, military camps, folklore, cowboy poetry and a new Branson, Mo.-based Wild West Show, which featured chuck wagon races, trick ropers and characters like Wyatt Earp coming to life.
The fair also tried to draw visitors with ticket coupons and free parking, which Crombie said might have actually contributed to revenue shortfalls. He declined to discuss specifics before Friday's meeting.
Lauren Neil, who was the Nevada State Fair Queen in 2008, said she has gone to the fair every year since she was a child and cared for livestock when she was growing up.
"I love the state fair," she said. "It would break my heart to see it not go on. It's a huge part of Nevada.
Organizers of Nevada's 136-year-old fair say its ongoing financial troubles worsened with slumping attendance last August and it likely won't be able to continue this summer without some help.
The nonprofit fair's board of directors scheduled a meeting in Reno Friday to provide details and try to develop ideas to save the event that has been held every year since 1874.
"If we don't fix the situation we're in, in all likelihood there won't be a fair," executive director Rich Crombie said.
"The fair was already in a fragile state going into last year," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Michigan ended its 160-year-old fair last year due to the sour economy.
"We haven't lost any others besides Michigan," said Jim Tucker, president of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions based in Springfield, Mo.
"And it wasn't a failed fair, it was a failed state. The state of Michigan got into serious economic trouble," he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "No others are on the chopping block I have heard of."
Nevada's fair is a state-sanctioned event but receives no state or federal money. It was renamed last year as the Nevada Territory Wild West Fair in an effort to return more to its agricultural roots and spur new interest in the general public.
The bad economy combined with bad weather contributed to the low attendance of about 30,000 people instead of the 50,000 they'd hoped for at the Reno Livestock Events Center just northeast of downtown, Crombie said.
"The fair has kind of been stuck in the mud, which is why we revamped it, but it takes a while to pull it out. It takes time to get it established to where people understand what it is," he said.
Last year's fair still had the traditional carnival midway, food, demolition derby and livestock attractions. But it also included new themes such as Civil War reenactments, military camps, folklore, cowboy poetry and a new Branson, Mo.-based Wild West Show, which featured chuck wagon races, trick ropers and characters like Wyatt Earp coming to life.
The fair also tried to draw visitors with ticket coupons and free parking, which Crombie said might have actually contributed to revenue shortfalls. He declined to discuss specifics before Friday's meeting.
Lauren Neil, who was the Nevada State Fair Queen in 2008, said she has gone to the fair every year since she was a child and cared for livestock when she was growing up.
"I love the state fair," she said. "It would break my heart to see it not go on. It's a huge part of Nevada.
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