The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
FULL FAIR THIS YEAR
Event will run today to Aug. 1 at Fairgrounds
Todd Demshar’s first year on the Lake County Fair Board was a unique one.
When the Concord Township resident joined the board in January, there was uncertainty of what exactly the fair would look like due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Last year’s event was modified to a junior fair because of the pandemic.
The fair will go on as usual, without restrictions, July 27- Aug. 1 at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Painesville Township.
Though the fair will go ahead as normal, plans were put in place in case restrictions were needed. Demshar said the individual committees sat down and figured out what was needed. He’s a member of the entertainment committee. This year, for the first time, the grandstand has numbered seating.
“It’s always been you buy a ticket, you go in and take a seat in the grandstand,” Demshar said. “So we had to allow for spacing, and we had to number the grandstand this year. So if there were restrictions, we could limit the number of ticket sales. To do so we had to have each seat listed
and numbered. We’re also switching to a fully electronic ticket for the grand stand, which is brand new for us this year. You can go online and buy your ticket and scan a QR code to get into the gate.”
Demshar said he’s happy it’s going to be a full fair this year. He’s hardly alone.
“Everyone is anxious to get back out there,” Lake County Fair Board President Wade Crofoot said. “We were looking at the other fairs and all the attendance is up at the earlier fairs, so if that’s an indication, it looks like we’ll be doing good.”
Crofoot said he would consider this year’s fair a success if there’s a full fair without any restrictions.
“Knock on wood,” he added.
Crofoot said there is still a plan in place if the fair does need to tighten up its restrictions.
“We can go into Plan B,” he said.
Through all the uncertainty, Crofoot said that the planning of this year’s fair went well.
“We’re lucky that a lot of last year’s vendors honored their contracts, so whatever we canceled last year, about 90 percent of our vendors honored last year’s contracts,” he said. “It went pretty smooth — smoother than I thought.”
The fair will have plenty of familiar events. Jungle Terry is putting on multiple shows throughout the fair. A parade will be held 6 p.m. July 27 to mark the first day of the fair. The Lake County Demolition Derby will close out the fair at 6 p.m., Aug. 1.
New this year is the Monster Truck Racing League, which will hold its event at the grandstand July 28, starting with a preshow from 6 to 7 p.m.
The Lake County Elections Board also will be at the fair July 27-Aug. 1 to demonstrate the county’s new voting equipment. The Lake County General Health District will be at the fair 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. July 29 to offer COVID-19 vaccines. All three types of vaccines will be available.
A full list of events can be found at https://lakecountyfair.org/fair-info/ schedule-of-events/.
General admission to the fair is $8 on July 27-29 and $10 on July 30-Aug. 1. Fair gates open 8 a.m. daily. The midway opens at noon daily and closes at 10 p.m. July 27-29 and Aug. 1, and at 11 p.m. July 30-31.
Crofoot said the preparations for the fair never really end. Once the fair ends, the planning for the next one begins.
“This is a process, it takes a long time to put this together,” Demshar said. “Now, in the last 10 days this has really transformed. Things are starting to come in, tents are starting to go up. And this is go time.”
Demshar said he’s excited for his first fair as a board member. Adding an extra layer of excitement, his daughter Anya is serving as this year’s fair queen. She said she’s excited to take on the role.
“The first time I ever came here, I was 6 weeks old,” Anya Demshar said. “My parents were (involved with) the livestock auction, so I’ve been around 4-H my whole life. I grew up and always watched the fair queens and I always thought that it was really cool there was a queen of the fair. It was always someone I looked up to, and now here I am.”
“Everyone is anxious to get back out there.” — Lake County Fair Board President Wade Crofoot