Dean Blair, executive director of the fairgrounds, is happy with how things have run thus far.
“Everything so far has gone textbook perfect,” he said. “We are having, and will continue to have, a nice fair with this outstanding fair support.”
Sunday was a good day for attendance, and Blair noted there were 11,000 attendees for the fair’s annual day of Christian music. This allowed local church members to showcase their voices at the CTC Shelter House, featuring First Christian Church and Medway Church.
Blair said he was glad to have the hiccups of the first couple of days out the way.
“It always takes a few days to get everyone trained,” he said. “Once we get the first few days under our belt, things start to run smoothly.”
Crediting the staff for how smooth things have been to this point, Bair talked about how positive the enhancements to the fairgrounds have proven to be.
“It takes a village to get this fair moving smoothly,” he said.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
The improvements to the fairgrounds include vehicle parking and building renovations to now run better than ever, according to Blair.
At times in the past, parking issues have included drivers triple parking over each other. However, now with new enhancements to the parking, people can smoothly transition in and out of the lots.
In addition to that, ticketing booths have made lines to get into the fair faster. Blair said implementing the new Yard Barn ticketing has made it easier, as the tickets are sold from the barn.
“I am very pleased with how organized things have been with our improvements,” he said.
“There are a lot of people that help with the fair whether that’s staff, volunteers and even participants throughout the community.”
Still to come, more performing acts will be in the Big Tent and the CTC Shelter House, as well as Bear Hollow wood carving, sea lions, and wolf show.
Blair said the sea lion show has filled up their bleachers to capacity, as spectators crowd around to watch both shows, “We even doubled the size of the bleachers, and they are still being filled,” he said.
“It is so nice to see the community so involved,” Blair said. “We want everyone to come here and have a really great experience.”
The fair will continue until Friday.
General admission tickets to the fair are $8 each. Children ages 5 and under are free, and on Wednesday, Kid’s Day, children ages 10 and under are admitted free. Agricultural and privilege passes are available at the fair office and cost $30 each for the week.
Additional information is available at clarkcoag.com.
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