Community Corner
Wright County Fair To Be Free For Kids In 2020
"This will be the 150th anniversary for the fair and the theme is going to be 'The Family-Friendly Fair,'" Borrell said.
December 3, 2019
Wright County Fair To Be Free For Kids In 2020
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The 150th anniversary of the Wright County Fair is still eight months away (July 22-26, 2020), but the preparation is already taking place and the Wright County Fair Board made a decision Monday night that will be good news for young people attending the fair.
County Commissioner Charlie Borrell, who is the county board representative on the fair board, said that, in honor of the landmark anniversary – commemorating the first Wright County Fair in 1870 – those attending the fair with children will be in for a pleasant surprise.
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“This will be the 150th anniversary for the fair and the theme is going to be ‘The Family-Friendly Fair,’” Borrell said. “Anyone (age) 17 and under will have free admittance to fair this year. They’re going to try that out and we want to encourage families to come.”
Events are already being planned and will include a raffle for a big-ticket item like a 4-wheeler or potentially a car. As an added inducement for adults who purchase entry tickets to the fair, their ticket will serve as a raffle entry as well.
While it is the 150th anniversary of the Wright County Fair, it won’t be the 150th county fair. In 1944 and 1945, there was no county fair because the fairgrounds in Howard Lake was used as a prisoner of war camp housing German soldiers from World War II.
The fair has a long and storied history in Wright County and the free children’s admission is a new addition being implemented in hopes of planting the seed that will keep fair attendance at the record levels
it has enjoyed in recent years.
“The future of the fair is to get young people involved in the fair,” Borrell said. “If they’re coming to the fair year after year after year and when they turn 18, they have to pay $5 a year, it’s not a big deal. We need to build that base up and I think the Fair Board took a really good action last night by doing that.
Borrell discussed the fair plans at today’s county board meeting. The discussion can be seen here at the 17:15 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZPMIUX3QgQ
This press release was produced by the Wright County Government. The views expressed here are the author’s own.
