Hopes for a Maui Fair dashed for a 4th straight year
Local clubs missing the fanfare, and the chance to raise money for causes
The Maui Fair will again be postponed this year as organizers point to issues that include securing commitments from service providers and vendors as well as not being able to bring in a full Joy Zone of rides and games.
The fourth postponement in a row exceeds even the three times the fair was postponed during World War II. If held this year, the Maui Fair would have celebrated its 98th event.
“Although we’ve tried to hold our 98th annual celebration for two years running, we are not able to have a fair where guests, participants and our community are treated to the style and magnitude of past annual fairs,” Avery Chumbley, president of the Maui Fair Alliance, said in a news release Thursday afternoon.
The Maui County community has not seen the county’s biggest event, held at the War Memorial complex, since the fair was postponed in 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021 it was again postponed due to lingering health concerns, including the difficulty of social distancing thousands of fairgoers. Last year, Fernandez Events, the operator of the Joy Zone offering rides and games, said it was not doing Neighbor Island fairs as it faced high shipping costs and staff shortages. The company also supplies the massive tents for various areas of the fair. Organizers also cited the lack of the Maui Community Correctional Center work line crew to help with setup and breakdown as another reason for the postponement.
This year Fernandez Events, the Joy Zone operator, told the alliance that it could not commit to providing a full Joy Zone because of high shipping costs and lingering staff shortages, the news release said.
Fernandez Events officials could not immediately be reached for comment via phone or email Thursday afternoon.
Even with significant support from Maui County and Mayor Richard Bissen, as well as assistance from the state and unions, the alliance is not able to hold the fair this year, the news release said.
“We’re very thankful for the support of our community and its leaders,” said Sherri Grimes, managing director of the Maui Fair. “Despite their and our best efforts, with venue construction challenges and no confirmation on rides and games, a different version of a fair could not be considered even with a reduced size Maui County Fair.”
Chumbley said via phone Thursday that the county offered federal aid funds from the pandemic, but that was still not enough, as there are logistical issues with ongoing work at the War Memorial Gymnasium, meaning that exhibits such as Orchidland, homemakers, student art, photography and agriculture would not have a home. A portion of the gym parking lot is also being used, so that also takes away from the fairgrounds.
Products and services, nonprofits and craft vendors have used that parking lot area in the past.
Chumbley also said he was not sure if he could get the MCCC work line back to assist.
But Chumbley knows how not having a fair impacts the community.
“It’s sad, the community nonprofits are going to lose out, too, because that’s what they relied (on) a lot for their fundraisers for the whole year,” he said.
This includes Lodge Maui Temple Association, which has been fundraising at the fair for 20-plus years, said Marty Alexander, Lodge secretary. The organization used to sell loco moco plates, and Alexander said not having the fair has “really cut” into their fundraising.
“But we are making it,” he said. “We sure wish it was back.”
Dominic Suguitan, longtime past president of the Kiwanis Club of Maui, also knows the void the fair leaves. His club sold dry mein, and the fellow Kiwanis Club of Kahului sold malasadas, which Suguitan said were “two big fundraiser booths.”
He said a lot of those funds raised helped them assist high school Key Clubs, including sending them to training workshops off-island.
“It’s been hard, with no funds coming in like it did with the fair, it kind of really eliminated a lot of that possible training for these students,” he added.
As for the future, Chumbley said an event without rides and games is “a festival, not a fair.” Such an event could not be stretched across four days and generate crowds such as the 82,000 seen in 2019, when the last fair was held, “without a full-blown slate of activities and events.”
And, not having that full slate of offerings folks are used to would also make it hard to justify admission, which in 2019 was $10 for adults at the gate.
“We won’t be doing a festival,” Chumbley said.
The Maui Fair typically runs from Thursday through Sunday, with a parade on Thursday afternoon as a kickoff to the event.
Chumbley listed the bits and pieces of the fair that could be done and put together, such as food trucks, or an entertainment festival, or even a parade, but it just wouldn’t be the same.
“It doesn’t have the same historical value and quality to it,” he said.
Chumbley said putting together the fair is complex and costly. In 2019, it cost about $780,000 to hold the fair.
“We spent more than we took in,” he said of the 2019 fair. “We got a little bit of money left over in the bank but nowhere near enough to risk a total failure.”
“I’m just worried that the fairs as we used to know them, may not happen again,” Chumbley said.