A new fight over the ‘Broward County Fair’
One event wants the other to stop using the name
MARGATE — The Broward County Fair is being ordered to stop using the name “Broward County Fair” just as it nears the end of its eventful run this year.
The attraction, underway for weeks now in Margate, has delighted crowds but also has drawn protests over an animal show, and was stunned by a shooting that left a woman wounded and an event worker facing an attempted murder charge.
The latest flare-up, over the name, is about which of two fair groups is allowed to proceed with the show using the longtime event’s title — a fixture in the community for decades.
A longtime event
The original Broward County Fair has operated in Broward since 1976, first in Davie, and spending most of its time in Hallandale Beach.
A for-profit group formed several years ago with the same name and pays the original nonprofit group the rights to run it. But critics say that misleads the public, who think they are attending the original fair.
In an email statement from Broward County Fair President Mark Williamson to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, his fair “has issued a cease and desist” order to the operator of the existing fair to stop using the “tradename and associated intellectual property.”
Williamson said attorneys told him not to speak until now.
The new fair’s attorney, Josh Rydell, confirms they were given notice on Thanksgiving Day. But he said there is no wrongdoing, and the fair will continue operating status quo through Sunday in Margate as scheduled.
He said the fair has all permits it needs to operate, including safety inspections.
A falling out
The original Broward County Fair is operated as a nonprofit, with a board of directors, and chartered in 1976 by the Florida Department of Agriculture, according to its website. Its charter, which a circuit judge signed off on in 1977, requires that another nonprofit run the fair if the board were to dissolve. Its legal name is “Broward
County Youth Fair, Inc.”
“The Broward County Fair follows the tradition of all fairs,” its website reads. “Fairs are as much a part of American life as baseball, hot dogs and apple pie.”
Then someone else entered the picture: Harlan Bast has operated as the amusement vendor for the Broward County Fair through his contract with the Broward County Youth Fair since October 2013.
His new Broward County Fair formed in 2017, filing paperwork with the state as a for-profit company with the legal name “Broward County Fair, Inc.”
Bast, through his company Hildebrand Amusement Rides, signed a 10-year contract in 2017 to run the fair, according to both Williamson and Bast’s spokesman. Williamson said there also is a 10-year extension option.
But Williamson said his board decided in March to not have the fair. Bast “had a contract to produce the fair, but only if we had it. We want to break the contract,” he told the Sun Sentinel.
This season’s fair was the first fair since 2019 because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Margate city officials signed off on the fair after assurances that Bast had the rights until 2027. So Margate’s Community Redevelopment Agency, as the landowner, approved the fair to operate on its property off State Road 7 through Sunday.
City Manager Cale Curtis previously told the Sun Sentinel: “There is no confusion as to what the Broward County Fair is.” He could not be reached for comment Thursday about the ceaseand-desist order.
But the people who have traditionally participated in the fair disagree about whether there is confusion.
The issue over who is running the fair came to light when a Margate City Hall watchdog with a social media following, who goes by the name Ed Connely, publicly questioned how the fair could operate, raising the question at public City Hall commission meetings.
[subhead] Welcoming the fair [/subhead] One commissioner framed it as a victory to let the fair base itself in the city.
“Even if it wasn’t the Broward County Fair, if even it was the Alaska Fair, they’re paying us $25,000,” said Antonio V. Arserio, who is now the mayor, before colleagues corrected him that the city was receiving a $50,000 payment for use of the land. “Our city is going to see an influx in economic opportunity. So Alaska Fair, Broward Fair, England Fair, I could care less. Margate’s got the win on this one.”
Fred Segal, president of the Broward County Farm Bureau, which provides educational programs in schools and offers the public information about agriculture, said he had no idea that there were new owners until he saw those discussion son Facebook. The Farm Bureau has been overseeing the agricultural tents at the fair for more than 20 years.
He said he was asked to go back this season but declined after learning there was no permit from the Department of Agriculture to operate under the state charter definition of a county fair.
“We were not going to get in the middle and participate,” he said.
The new Broward County Fair in Margate has faced several issues in recent weeks.
A sideshow of monkeys riding atop dogs drew cries from animal activists of inhumane treatment. The animal show’s owner dismissed those claims, calling it ridiculous nonsense.
Then last month, police say two carnival workers squabbled over a woman. Although a spokesman for the fair said at the time that the worker had only “fired a gun into the air in an act of jealousy,” a police report said the worker had actually “pointed a loaded handgun at the head” of his victim, who took off running.
Police said the shooter, identified as Brandon Craig, 40, of Royal Palm Beach, fired two shots at the other worker, missing him, but one bullet traveled 300 feet into an assisted living facility. It struck an elderly woman in the foot as she slept, according to court records. Craig has been charged with multiple crimes including attempted murder.