Thanksgiving Holiday Hours

The Kansas State Fair offices will be closed on Thursday, November 26, 2009 and Friday, November 27, 2009 for the Thanksgiving holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Second Weekend – November 2009

The G & S Promotions’ Gun Show will be in the Sunflower North Building on Saturday, November 14 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday, November 15 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

November

It’s hard to believe that it is already November! Time flies when you are having fun.

This weekend we have the Kansas Kids Closet – Childrens Clothing Consignment Sale in the Domestic Arts Building from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, November 6 and 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 7.

The State Fair Board meeting will be Tuesday, November 10 in the Administration Building at 10:00 a.m.

The State Fair offices will be closed on Wednesday, November 11 in observance of Veterans Day. We wish to thank all veterans for your service to our country and for the sacrifices you have made.

Party, Party, Party

Last week, we hosted our Employee Appreciation Party. The Employee Appreciation Party is a big thank you to all of the part-time employees that work for us during the Fair. We are very appreciative of the part-time folks that come in and help us. We couldn’t do it without them.

Last night, we hosted the Scholastic Press Corp Banquet. The Scholastic Press Corp competition is held during the annual Kansas State Fair. High School groups compete in two categories. Each group must complete a 4 page newsletter or a 4-5 minute video about the Fair. Some stories are assigned and others are creator’s choice. The Grand Champion receives a $100 premium for their school and the Reserve Champion reserves $50.

At the SPC banquet, everyone has a chance to see all of the newsletters and videos that each team created. The winners were announced last night at the banquet. The Grand Champion for the print category is Sterling High School and the Grand Champion for the video category is Chaparral High School. Goddard High School is the Reserve Champion for both print and video categories. Congratulations to Sterling, Chaparral and Goddard High Schools! To learn more about SPC, check out the SPC competition slideshow on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMVrwRPjy6U.

In addition to SPC, a People’s Choice competition is held for college students. The collegiate photography intern students are at work the entire Fair taking photos. The top photos were selected and placed in the People’s Choice Competition. The winner receives a $50 check. The public voted for their favorite photo. The winner was announced at the banquet last night. Deb Hagen from HCC took the winning photo. Congratulations, Deb! See Deb’s photo at http://www.kansasstatefair.com/photo-gallery/gallery.php/v/2009Fair+Photos/PeopleChoice/W-cowboyeatingicecream.jpg.html.

Good week

This has been a good week. We announced our official audited attendance of 350,856 for the 2009 Kansas State Fair. Our attendance for 2009 is an increase of 10% from 2008. Thanks to everyone that came to the Fair and made it such a success. We appreciate your business!

Our budget for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 was presented to the State Fair Board on Tuesday. They voted to approve the budget as presented.

We are starting to look at acts for the Grandstand concerts for the 2010 Kansas State Fair. The boss put out a request for your input on the Fans of the Kansas State Fair page on Facebook. He also sent out a request by e-mail. The boss really does read everything that is submitted by e-mail, facebook and Twitter. Here is your opportunity to be a part of the process of selecting our entertainment. Here is a link to all of the ways you can contact us.
http://www.kansasstatefair.com/contact_description.php?pages=ci&id=1

Looking ahead to the weekend, The Kansas Cutting Horse Association is having their Cutting Horse Futurity Show here through Saturday (Oct 13-17). The Kansas State Rabbit Breeders are having their State Rabbit Show and Convention tomorrow and Sunday (Oct 17-18). Promise Regional Medical Center will be here Saturday (Oct 17) hosting a Health Fair. They are offering free medical screenings and the Reno County Health Department will be administering seasonal flu shots. Approximately eighty (80) vendors will have booths set up featuring health related products and educational literature. For more information, visit our webpage at http://www.kansasstatefair.com/event_full.php?id=440.

Turning The Buildings

As soon as the annual state fair is over, our maintenance guys are busy turning the buildings. Just to share a little bit of Fair lingo – cleaning up the building from the last event and getting it ready for the next event. Since the last event was the annual Kansas State Fair, it takes a little longer to “turn” the buildings. Our non-fair rentals start the Friday after the Fair ends so it is a tight turn around for our guys. They do an incredible job of getting everything ready for our customers.

This past weekend, we had twelve (12) events on the Fairgrounds. We had 3 RV groups with approximately 160 RVs on the grounds. In addition to the RVers, we had the CPRA Rodeo Finals, a sports car club rally, a church function, a class reunion and a few private functions.

Looking ahead this week, we have one of our RV groups still with us and another new group joining us on the weekend. On Saturday, October 10, The Hutchinson News will have their City Wide Garage Sale in the Meadowlark Building. Another event on Saturday is a group bringing in an all day concert event. Various groups will be performing through out the day in Bison Arena from noon to 10:00 p.m. There is a craft/trade show in the Domestic Arts Building, as well on Saturday.

Many of you may not know that we have a storage program. For those that want to keep their RVs, boats, etc out of the weather, we will begin accepting items for storage on October 20. Storage is accepted on Tuesday mornings from 8:00 a.m. to noon and on Wednesday afternoons from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. For information about rates, placement and guidelines; please contact our office at 620-669-3600.

People’s Choice – Favorite Fair Photo

Each year, we offer college students the opportunity to be a part of the photography intern program at the Kansas State Fair. Each student will spend 2 hours on the Fairgrounds taking photos. The students are given a few assigned projects and the remainder of their time is used to take photos of their choice. Then they return to the offices to format and place their photos on the Kansas State Fair website in our Photo Gallery.

From all of the photos taken by the students, a few photos are selected to be People’s Choice candidates. We ask the public to vote on their favorite fair photo from those that have been selected to be People’s Choice Candidates. You can vote for your favorite at http://www.kansasstatefair.com/photo_voting.php through October 1, 2009. After October 1, the votes are counted. The photograph with the most votes wins. The winner will be announced at the Scholastic Press Corps Banquet on October 27.

Post Show

On Monday, we broadcast the Post Show to recap the fun from the 2009 Kansas State Fair. Todd and Jenn from Greteman Group were our hosts. They interviewed our General Manager, Denny Stoecklein. They discussed attendance, grandstand and even the pickle pops. Very funny!

Ron Diamond was our special guest for the Post Show. Todd had a chance to be hypnotized. So he and Ron had plenty to discuss. If you missed the live broadcast, you can view the video at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2202824.

As Denny said on the Post Show, we welcome comments and suggestions. We like to hear what you liked and didn’t like. We read everything that is sent to us. Do you have any suggestions for next year’s Fair? What about Grandstand entertainment? You can share your comments/suggestions/ideas by leaving a comment on our blog, sending us a tweet on twitter, post a message on our Facebook group, Fans of the Kansas State Fair, or use our contact form http://www.kansasstatefair.com/contact.php. We look forward to hearing from you!

Fine Arts Building

Today was a busy Wednesday. We had several marching bands performing on the Fairgrounds. Plus many of our area local students were out-of-school today. Big Rig rides were in the Grandstand and the Sheep Dog Demonstrations in Bison Arena. It was fun to see all of the Red Hat ladies on the Fairgrounds. One of their activities was the Cow Chip Throwing Contest. The photo below was taken by our photography intern students.

Tonight after I helped the Ticket Office with the ticket sales for the Outlaw Truck and Tractor Pull, I had an opportunity to go to dinner with my daughter. I really enjoy eating at the Wheatland Cafe in the Pride of Kansas Building. Their homemade bierocks and apple dumplings with ice cream are a real treat. After dinner, we checked out the largest pumpkin and largest watermelon.

After we meandered through the Pride of Kansas, we walked over to the Fine Arts Building. My daughter loves art and it is kind of a yearly tradition to look through this building. The Chainsaw Auction carvings are on display in this building for the first time this year. Prior to this, we had the carvings on display throughout the Fairgrounds. Now you can see them all as they are finished in one place. A.J. Lutter is our chainsaw carver. I love to look at his work. I am amazed at what he can do. His work will be available for purchase at the Chainsaw Woodcarving Auction on Saturday afternoon in AT&T Arena at 4:00 p.m.

After looking at the woodcarvings, we wondered over to the pictures and wheat weaving. You need to check out the wheat weaving display. One of the entries was a lady made out of wheat. She had flowers in her hand and a purse. She even had curls made from wheat. It was incredible.

Then we went over to the professional paintings and drawings. Kansas is lucky to have so many talented artists. In addition to the professional pieces, there is a display of entries from the Plein Aire Contest. Artists in the Plein Aire Contest find a spot on the Fairgrounds and paint/draw what they see. Their entries are absolutely fabulous. You should check out the State Fair Railroad. It is fantastic! This year just happens to be the 40th year anniversary for the Railroad on our Fairgrounds. It seems fitting that the Railroad would receive such an honor.

Kansas State Fair

Lots of exciting stuff happening at the 2009 Kansas State Fair. Tesla put on a great show Friday night. Look at this happy crowd. They were alot of fun. Tesla’s head singer was really cool. He sat up in the stands and shook hands with a few folks before the concert started. I remember walking past him thinking, what a nice guy. I didn’t realize he was part of Tesla. Then after the concert he spent some time down by the merchandise table shaking hands, signing autographs and getting his photo taking. He even helped settle the merchandise sales after everyone left which is really unusual for a performer. Anyhow, it made a big impression on me.

We had the Toddler Games Driving School in Gottschalk Park; the legislative forum with Senator Brownback, U.S. Representative Todd Tiahrt and U.S. Representative Jerry Moran in AT&T Arena; and Montgomery Gentry in the Grandstand on Saturday. Sunday, we hosted the motorcycle rally and parade; the Kansas Arm Wrestling Championships and the Kansas Pedal Pull. The Pedal Pull event drew over 700 children from across the state of Kansas. Huey Lewis and The News closed the evening.

Yesterday was Dollar Day. What a fantastic day! Lots of folks on the Fairgrounds. Our entertainment for the evening was the Demolition Derby.

Make your plans now to be a part of the 2009 Kansas State Fair. The weather is absolutely beautiful, the food is great and you can buy just about anything. Plus we have a lot more cool stuff to come!

Montgomery Gentry, Huey Lewis and The News and the Demolition Derby were in the Grandstand. Tonight the Gaither Vocal Band is in the Grandstand. Hope you can come out and enjoy the Fair. The weather is beautiful and there is a lot more cool stuff to come!