Page 32
OSCEOLA COUNTY FAIR February 12-21, 2021 By: Larry Berry
February 11 -20, 2022
We were fortunate that the 2021 Osceola County Fair was held with no occupancy restrictions. After coordinating with the Osce- ola County Health Department and submitting a reopening plan, we basically opened as a full fair. All of our vendors except for one arrived and setup, and our full entertainment schedule was filled and ready to perform for our guests. We did have social distancing in place in our main stage entertainment venue, cut- ting our capacity basically in half. Masks were required for entry into the fairgrounds; however, many guests removed them as the state and county guidelines did not require them to be worn in outdoor settings. We added eighteen hand wash sta-
tions, had a vendor donate 10,000 bottles of hand sanitizer to provide to guests entering the fair, and added additional hand sanitizer stations en- tering all of our covered or indoor venues. The fair did invest in an electrostatic sprayer for sani- tizing seating areas such as the entertainment tent and the seating in our show arena, and additional contract services were secured for wiping down eating venues and picnic tables when guests de- parted. Strates Shows did a fantastic job of put- ting together their own reopening plan, adding additional measures to open responsi- bly.
Attendance at the 2021 fair was down approximately 16%; however, our carnival
revenue was only down 6.7% and concession sales were strong. Being one of the first fairs to open in 2021, we budgeted for and expected attendance to be lower than prior years. We had what we call several “wins” this year in addi- tion to opening with a full fair including the best attendance in our entertainment venue the fair has seen in many years, and extremely strong market animal sales setting a new all-time rec- ord for auction revenue of $853,113 with 252 animals sold. Part of this was attributed to live streaming our auction and having on-line bidding in addition to favorable prices. The only animal show we were not able to hold was for the rabbits
because of the recent RHDV-2 disease situation. Our rabbit committee thought outside of the box and had the kids provide pictures and write-ups about their animals which were displayed on the cages, still allowing them to have partici- pation in the fair.
We received so many compliments both in person and on social media about opening and
how they were excited to return to some sort of normalcy in their lives. We have a grand total of four comments which referenced we were go- ing to be a “super spreader,” event, or how some guests were not wearing masks even though the county mandate did not require them. The end result was the COVID data showed for the three weeks after our fair, positive COVID cases actually declined by 33% and not one case of contract tracing could be blamed on attending the Osceola County Fair. All in
all, whether it be setting the path for other fairs to open or helping our youth, it was a success- ful fair and we are grateful to our vendors, entertainers, volunteers, board, and of course our community for supporting us.
Faircracker SUMMER 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69
