The end of the county fair

  The mixed martial arts card staged at the Lake County Fair last month produced hostile emotions, violent threats and then fierce fighting. In the ring? Not so much.

Apparently relatives of opposing official foes took exception to the stated attitudes of opponents’ families and various posse members. There was a rumble in the stands. Cops were called. Peace eventually was restored.

While the mixed martial arts crowd was suffering contusions, the 85th annual fair was suffering, too.

Fair attendance is swooning and has been for several years.

The fair drew 83,585 for five days this year. Revenue was down 18 percent.

In other years since the fair moved from its old grounds at Route 120, falling attendance was attributed to heat, rain and lightning. 

In the year after the move to Peterson Road, the fair drew 20,000 fewer than the previous year.  Fair officials said visitors were deterred and “baffled” by the new site.

The past five years would have been even tougher on the 85-year-old association that owns and runs the fair had it not sold the old site for $12.5 million.

That can cover a lot of leftover corndogs.

The truth, of course, is that however precipitous the plunge might be, the fair’s failing attendance is no one’s fault. The show is the victim of demographics and history, not poor operation.

We love county fairs, especially ours, but let’s be honest. They aren’t what they used to be and likely will never be again.

Any county that loses as much farmland as Lake County has to suburban growth will suffer financial casualties at county fairs presumptively based on rural life.

As of 2007, Lake County had only 34,000 acres of farmland, down 34 percent from a decade earlier. Every year the total diminishes. The state loses an average of 77,000 acres of farmland every year.

One of these days, a county fair in suburban Illinois will no longer make sense. We dread that day.