“FAIR”LY IMPORTANT MATTERS…………..……………………….………………...
Retired Military as a Resource Col. K.G. Cassels, U.S.A., Ret.
In preparing a story for this issue of the Federation newsletter I
would first like you to know that festivals were first exposed to me when I was 3 1/2 years old. My family took me to the first festival in 1930. It was called the Plant City Strawberry Festival. It began as a vision of the local Lions Club. It was either a 3 or 4 day cele- bration for the bountiful harvest of strawberries, 1930 was the beginning of a long and very hard recession, of course at 3 1/2 years old I didn’t know or appreciate what a recession was. This period was also known as the “Great Depression.” I do remember all the exhibits on display and all the shortcake
one could eat. The high point of the event was the crowning of the first Strawberry Festival Queen, Charlotte Rosenberg was the queen and it was a great show with all the pomp and circum- stance one could ever ask for. The Florida Federation of Fairs has come a long way since that
period, but that is what I remember about my first Festival/Fair experience. My real experience in the Festival/Fair business, and it is a busi-
ness, began on 1 September 1981. That is the date I was hired by the Board of Directors to understudy Mr. “Davy” Davenport, the Festival/Fair manager. Davy wanted to retire and had asked the Board to seek his replacement. Perhaps I drew the short straw. Davy, Patsy Brooks, Carolyn Eady, a part-time bookkeeper, a
part-time maintenance man consisted of the entire staff. Patsy suggested that I go to the next International Association of
Fairs and Expositions (IAFE) convention to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Patsy had attended before and thought it would be a good start in learning the business. She was right, it was a great place to learn something more about the business….more than my first visit to the Festival in 1930. By the way, I had the current Strawberry Festival President tell
me that he learns more by attending the Florida Federation of Fairs meetings than attending the IAFE meetings in Las Vegas. This is, in my opinion, a breakthrough since I never experienced many, if any, Directors attending, much less the President. Even though I didn’t know much about the business, I was ea-
ger to learn. Here are some of my early impressions and observa- tions: 1. There was little money available for the business in 1981, for the 1982 Festival.
2. The Festival drew an estimated 300,000 in the 9 day run in 1982—again, my first Festival/Fair.
3. There was not a stage—the rear end of an 18 wheeler had been dropped for our use.
4. Country music was just coming on the scene, but one could tell it was going to become very strong.
5. We could only use the grounds when the High School didn’t need it as a football stadium.
6. One building could only be used by the Festival when the American Legion didn’t need it.
7. The Festival did have full use of the exhibit building. It was built by the WPA in the early 30’s.
8. Davy hired a maintenance man which now made a team of two people. Davy was a person that had business experi- ence, was innovative and had a “can do” attitude.
9. The strongest portion of the Festival was the undaunted support of the Plant City community, volunteers and a can- do attitude was plentiful.
10. It was clear to me that the 1982 Festival would be success- ful because of the above and the positive leadership of Mr. Davy Davenport. I wanted to support him in every way pos- sible and learn as much as I could in as short a length of time as possible.
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11. Davy had the full support of the Board of Directors and most of all—the voting Directors, of 16, had elected Mr. Roy Parke as the President in early 1981 (before I went aboard). —Roy as an immigrant from Ireland but was made a U.S. citizen before fighting for our freedom during World War II.
12. Two weeks before the Festival opened in 1982 Davy asked that two people movers be constructed and operational on opening day. I begged Roy to assist me and provide guid- ance on how to accomplish Davy’s request—it was accom- plished.
13. Ten days before opening day, Davy asked that 1,000 seats be made available for opening day and placed in front of the stage. The seating would be in addition to the 3600 in the concrete bleachers—making a total of 4,600 available for the first Country Music show at about 3:30 pm. The sec- ond show at 7:30 would follow after clearing the first show’s seating capacity.
Ken Cassels survived the 1982 Festival due to the leadership of
Davy and Roy Parke. The first of April 1982 Davy retired and I took over as General Manager. As manager it was my job to im- prove the Festival and make the succeeding Festivals better and better. Here are some of the things that I recommended to Roy Parke
who, in turn, would do the political thing to get the concurrence of the Board. 1. Support me in building a stage 8 feet off the ground and cov-
ered by canvas. We accomplished this for the 1983 Festival, the stage would be on the East end of the field—we did it! Procure 4,000 folding chairs and place them in front of the new stage. I then asked Roy to ask the voting Board to attend the next IAFE Convention, it was accomplished. Next: Roy, please assign a job to each member of the Board, to include the Associate Directors, it was accomplished. Please, let’s build 4 more people movers. It was accomplished. Now Roy, please let’s conduct a 10 day Festi- val for 1983. It was accomplished. The accomplishments set the Festival on the road to bigger and better Festivals. Just examples of what can be done. Did my military experience and management experience help?
YES—IT FIT LIKE A GLOVE. Even though the President of the Festival changed about every two years—Roy Parke never left me during the 14 years I worked for the Festival. Suggestions for the members of the Florida Federation of Fairs: When you have a need for management—don’t over look re-
cently retired Officers and Non-commissioned Officers (NCO’s). In some manner recognize those of the Armed Forces which have kept this country free. Consider using a Boy Scout Troop during the Festival/Fairs. I’m grateful and appreciative of being a small part in the suc-
cessful operation of the Florida Federation of Fairs and Livestock Shows. Thank You! Ken
Ken Cassels is the former manager of the Florida Straw-
berry Festival in Plant City. He served the Florida Federa- tion of Fairs & Livestock Shows as President in 1990 and is an Honorary Life Member. Ken and his wife Peggy live in Salt Springs, Florida. They
attended the Summer Workshop this year in Plant City. It was there that the Newsletter Committee asked him to share his story as it relates to retired military as a resource for Fairs/Festivals. Thank you, Ken! Ken can be contacted at
kencassels@hotmail.com
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