THE BALLOON MAN

Georgia State Fair sold to Memphis promoter

By JIM GAINES From: www.macon.com
Operation of the Georgia State Fair will be sold to a Tennessee firm, and that means it may be back on schedule for 2012 instead of being canceled as previously announced.
Members of the Exchange Club of Macon, which has run the fair since 1942, voted almost unanimously to sell the fair for an undisclosed price, fair board President Don Johstono said Thursday.
“The club met as the Georgia State Fair Association this afternoon and decided to accept the offer of selling the fair to a company: Universal Fairs, out of Memphis, Tenn.,” Johstono said. “They are excited about the fair, and they are actually talking about making plans to have the fair in 2012, here in Central City Park.”
The Exchange Club voted narrowly in August not to hold a fair next year, due at least in part to several years of low income. Then Universal Fairs’ offer arrived, Johstono said, in late November.
Company President Mark Lovell was unavailable for comment Thursday, but in 2010 he wrote an e-mail regarding the firm’s (ultimately unsuccessful) bid to operate the Tennessee State Fair: “My company, Universal Fairs, is in the business of helping restore fairs and festivals to their original glory and to make them profitable.”Read more: http://www.macon.com/2011/12/02/1808237/georgia-state-fair-sold-to-memphis.html#ixzz1fNQlKFs4