FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Fond du Lac County Fair was this weekend, one year after being one of the only fairs in the state that wasn’t canceled.
And organizers say, this year is better than ever.
“It feels fun!” said Allison Hay of Fond du Lac.
Fun and, for some, attending the fair felt like getting back to some sense of normalcy.
“It feels normal again, you know, back to normal life,” said Shawn Pierce of Fond du Lac.
When most fairs threw in the towel amid the pandemic, the Fond du Lac County Fair pressed on.
“No regrets at all,” said treasurer of the Fond du Lac County Fair board Matt Immel. “Really, it was a great learning experience for our board to reevaluate the fair, itself, and we made some changes last year that we carried forward into this year.”
The Fond du Lac County Fair this time around is like night and day from last year – fewer signs reminding fairgoers of safety precautions, not a mask in sight and no more capacity limits. Immel tells FOX 11….
“As far as extra cleanliness and extra cleaning protocols, we’ve always did have good procedures in place, but it really made us hone in and double-check what we need to do to make sure we’re giving people the environment to enjoy the fair safely.”
To Pierce’s dismay, there were no rides in sight last year.
“It’s silly to have a fair without the rides, because that’s why we’re here!”
Instead of being cooped up in your house, like last year, this year, you could now be cooped up in cage on a ride, because rides at the Fond du Lac County Fair are back.
“We’ve got our carnival back, all of our grandstands shows are back again, we’ve enhanced and enlarged our agriculture education and ‘Moo turnity’ awards center here in our Creation Building…families are loving that,” Immel said.
Many vendors took last year off. But Grandpa Chuck’s Kettle Corn, a fair staple, stuck it out.
“Surprisingly, out of the 12 events we normally do, we only did one, but we did pick up three others, and the one that we did was Fond du Lac County Fair,” owner of Grandpa Chuck’s Kettle Corn Chuck Gellings said.
“It went alright, you know, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of business that we had.”
While the fair didn’t see as many people last year, organizers say, they’re sure making up for it this year.
“We are off to a wonderful year this year; on pace to break several records,” he said. “I think it’s been really neat to see the families coming out. I think they maybe realized what they missed last year.”
Vendors are happy with the way 2021 is going, as well. Final attendance and revenue numbers will be released soon.
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