The Future of the State Fair is in your hands (and gullet)
There has been a lot of news coverage lately regarding waning interest at state fairs across the country.
Indeed, what is one of the most American of traditions – right up there with apple pie and an unhealthy dependence on fossil fuels – is attracting less interest each year, posing tough cash-flow challenges for the state fair brass. NPR recently covered the topic, as did ABC World News and a slew of dailies nationwide . The consensus is clear: state fairs just don’t have the deep-fried draw that they used to.
Some contend that the problem is the state fair itself – they say the down-home, farm-raised feel of these events doesn’t resonate with today’s wired, thrill-seeking world. Still, Google ‘state fair’ and you don’t get the grim headlines easily – they’re dwarfed by the individual listings of various fairs’ Web sites from coast to coast.
And if you take the time to actually don your walking shoes and hoof it to the fair of your choice, you’ll find most of the same things that thrilled you as a kid, from Clydesdales to cotton candy, and some new draws, like big-name musical acts, beer gardens, and vibrating foot massagers that soothe yer barkin’ dogs for just a quarter.
As I found at the Eastern States Exposition (affectionately referred to as the Big E) this past weekend, state fairs are still fun, if not steeped in a greasy vat of kitsch and dusted liberally with powdered nostalgia. There’s still plenty of traffic, too – while I don’t have last year's attendance numbers to compare, the night I visited the Big E, 80,197 other people did as well.
It seems the powers-that-be in the fair biz need to look at their own cool factor and translate that to the masses, but also embrace a little modern change, too.
I’m not saying do away with the 150-pound pumpkins and the midway games that are better-rigged than the rides. I’m just saying, Chief Fair Officers, have a little hutzpah. Don’t kid yourselves into thinking a state fair is the American equivalent to running with the bulls at the Pamplona Festival or partying on the Seine on Bastille Day. It’s not. But it is an annual American melting pot, bubbling over with all of those things you won’t find anywhere but in the U.S. of A.: blue ribbon cows, pie-eating contests, petting zoos, ring toss, arts and crafts, airbrushed t-shirts, sand art, carnival freaks… not to mention the candy apples, homemade lemonade, roasted nuts, cream puffs, pierogis, kettle corn, dill pickles, donuts, milk shakes, pizza, kielbasa, French fries, and fried dough.
And good old American indigestion. Let’s not let that go. Let’s own it.
Who would think to take the camera along?
Photos from the Beat
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