For years the DeKalb County Fair has been an event that young and old look forward to. Crowds gather in the Town of Alexandria each summer to enjoy some entertainment, have some thrills on various rides, and take part in the competitions.
In recent years the fair has been held mid-July, but due to a scheduling conflict with the carnival company this year’s fair is coming earlier. It will be held June 24 thru 29.
“We have had to change carnivals this year,” explained DeKalb County Fair Manager Jeff McMillen. “This year’s carnival will be the James Gang Carnival. Our previous carnival wanted to go to a five-day fair and wanted to move our dates into August. We just couldn’t be sandwich in between the Putnam County Fair and the Wilson County Fair.”
The original dates for the Grandpa Fair of the South were in October. In those days before the War Between the States, the fair was centered around agriculture. It was a time when farmers could show off their crops and livestock, while ladies would display their crafts, cooking and canning.
Over the years, the fair became more entertainment oriented, and dates pushed forward in order to not compete with the school year. For many years the DeKalb County Fair was held the last week of August, with the school year beginning the first week of September. As time went on, the school year expanded into August and the fair dates were moved back to compensate.
As the dates moved, the fair faced competition from other area fairs for scheduling dates for the carnival rides. The traveling carnivals set up at different fairs around the country, a week at a time. They must be scheduled far in advance to avoid conflicts with other events. That is the reason for DeKalb’s schedule change.
With the fair being earlier this year, some categories for agricultural items will be affected. Crops like corn, pumpkins, and watermelons will be far from ready in June, but fair officials say the dates should not affect canning and preserved items. “Canned goods are eligible as long as they were canned after the previous year’s fair,” McMillen said.
McMillen said that the Fair Board is working hard and providing new and exciting things for this year’s event. “We wanted to let people know we’ve had to move it forward a couple of weeks, so they can prepare and schedule,” McMillen said. “We’re looking at having events every night at the arena. We’re in the process of looking at doing a rodeo, and we have the demolition derby and ATVs booked.”
“We’re also looking at, providing our facilities will work, doing an event called a ‘Bump and Run.” That would use the derby cars, and it’s something that is being done in some of our surrounding counties. It’s basically a car race. But first we need to make sure our facilities are safe enough to do it.”
Something the fair is in need of is volunteers. McMillen said that the board want to host some exciting events, but they need people to help run them. “We’ve talked about doing a Monster Truck show one night,” McMillen continued. “We’re not 100 percent sure we’ll have the tractor pull. The reason is we don’t have enough volunteers. Everyone thinks you scheduled a tractor pull and they come in here and they do it. That’s not the way it works. They provide the sled and the scales. We have to provide most everything else. We don’t have the people to put it on.”
“We have to have people who can hook and unhook the tractors. We have to have two or three tractors with drivers to scrape the track and pull tractors from the track. We also have to rent tractors for the event. We’re looking at all avenues on that particular event. We are planning on having six days of events this year.”
McMillen also explained that with the demolition of the old grandstand area, the fair is looking to expand the midway. The ride area may move into that area, allowing for more rides. “At some point in time we would like to construct an amphitheater down there, but we have to be careful because that is in a flood plain,” McMillen explained.
The fair is also redoing its website. “We are going to do our best to have the Fair Premium Book on the website by the end of the year. That way people can go online and find what is available for entries. It is supposed to be a Mobil devise and more user-friendly website, and hopefully we will have that up and going soon.”
Remember the dates for the 2024 DeKalb County Fair will be held Monday thru Saturday, June 24-29.