ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The 2024 Five State Fair has officially come and gone, and as Five State Fair Board President Mary Rose tells it, there was a lot to be proud of for this year’s festivities.
“We as a board thought this year's fair was successful. On the 4-H/agriculture side, we saw several animals entered for judging, which was amazing to see. There was the Southwest Kansas weather to deal with, we had both 100-plus degree temperatures and sun and rain and cooler weather in the fair's five-day span, but we made it through all of that,” Rose said. “With the livestock, we had several Open Class entries and several 4-H entries. We had the Family Night that Wednesday and served nachos and ice cream to everyone, and that seemed to get a good response – we were expecting to see about 200 to 300 people that evening and ended up seeing more than that. We also brought back the Demolition Derby for that Friday and Saturday, and we had more than 300 people each night, which was amazing, and our antique tractor pull also drew in more than 20 entrants and about 150 spectators in the Grandstands, so that also saw a big crowd. All in all, we feel like this year's fair was a success, we brought it back to basics by showing off the agriculture of Seward County and our five-state area. The number of entries for the indoor classes and the livestock shows was amazing, and we as a board felt like those visual demonstrations helped draw a lot of people in.”
Rose said there was a lot about the fair she enjoyed as well as a few aspects that could have gone more smoothly.
“I was glad to see us have the jackpot shows back and having a lot of animals in the barns, I was really happy to see that. I was also really thrilled to see as many people as we did in the poultry/rabbit barn – not a ton of people stayed to see all of that, but my overall feeling is the livestock portion of everything was very successful,” Rose said. “We also had several people in the community come out to everything, and we were really happy to see that – there was no event where the crowds were small, we had hundreds of people at each of the big events, which we were happy to see. When you plan a big event like the Five State Fair, you have to plan ahead as much as possible and realize there might be a point where you have to go to Plan B or even all the way to Plan Z, and you have to be prepared for some things not going quite as planned. We did have to move the Kid's Day events into the Seward County Activity Center since that Saturday saw inclement weather come through, and that also caused some of the animals to go home slightly earlier than planned. Everyone knows we don't control the weather, so I don't think there was really too much grumbling about all of that, and we knew there was a chance we'd have to make some changes in the plans, but everything worked out great. The first night of the Demolition Derby still saw a big turnout, as did the watermelon feed that was also happening that night even though the storm started coming through that night.”
Overall, Rose said, the board is happy with how the festivities ended up.
“We went back to the basics and brought the focus back to the hometown agriculture side of everything,” Rose said. “We were absolutely thrilled to have all the livestock that came through, we were thrilled to have the concession stand that was there, and we were happy to be able to offer almost everything free to the public so families could come out and enjoy everything. With all the livestock entries we saw, and with the crowds we saw at the bigger events, we were very happy with how everything ended up.”
Rose said overall, there was a lot of excitement and positivity surrounding this year’s fair festivities.
“The year does not end for the Five State Fair Board until October, when we next meet, so we can't make any official decisions about next year's fair until the new board is appointed. But moving forward, seeing all the success and participation from the community, we want to move forward and build from that,” Rose said. “We did have some events that happened prior to the official start of the fair activities, including the shotgun shoot for 4-H, which took place at the end of July. Even though the public might not see some of those events, they are happening, and those young 4-Hers work really hard to prepare for all of that. We also had the quilt entries and open class entries coming in prior to the official fair start. There's a lot more work that goes on behind the scenes than the community realizes, and I can't give enough praise for all of that work. We also had 25 judges who came from Liberal, Hugoton and Gruver, Texas who came and judged everything, which is huge for us. We had 35 swine on the grounds as well 36 roosters and hens, 12 rabbits, 12 chickens and a turkey, and they were being judged in that heat. We also had 18 goat and 31 sheep entries, and we also had 21 head of cattle that showed up and were entered into the jackpot competition, which is huge. The auctions also happened, and that brought in almost $12,000, all of which will be going directly to the 4-Hers. The KSCB Home Show also had 76 vendors with merchandise, and there were big crowds both days of that show, which we were pleased to see. We also had children who participated in the pedal pull that qualified to participate at the Kansas State Fair, and we're happy to have that Seward County representation at such a big event.”
Rose added there is already some tentative brainstorming going on for next year’s fair.
“We'll look more closely at what was successful and what wasn't as successful, as well as what the community seemed to like/not like, and we'll go from there with planning. We did enjoy the antique tractor pull, that was a big thing for us since people from all over the area came to take part in that, so we might bring that back,” Rose said. “We're also looking at centralizing everything onto the Seward County Fairgrounds and having more of the activities in the Ag Building and not so much in the Seward County Activity Center, we want to keep everything closer to the barns. We did have to scratch the horse show because of the weather that had come through the night before, but we're hoping to bring that back for next year. We'll probably offer mostly evening activities so families can come and take part in everything after the workday, and we'll probably want to have everything around the beginning of August again since children are out of school and everyone's coming back from vacation and all of that. We also liked being able to offer a free meal to the community with the Family Night, so we'll probably consider bringing that back, or doing something similar. Something people need to realize, however, is there is a lot of time and effort that goes into planning such a big event, and there's a lot of logistics involved as far as making sure facilities are available, making sure people are available, etc., so things can actually run. We have heard a few suggestions already, and we're open to hearing more, so if anyone in the community has any thoughts or suggestions, please share them with us and we'll gladly hear what you have to say, because we do want that community insight. And if people do want to share some ideas with us, they can send us a message through our Facebook page, or they can come to a Five State Fair Board meeting, which we have the first Thursday of every month. I think in the future, we want to keep the fair at basics with the hometown feel and most of the events in the evenings so families can come out. There's definitely a lot we're looking at. The Five State Fair's been going on for 111 years, and we want to thank everyone who came and participated and showed their support, because without the people, this event would not happen.”
