Tennessee State Fair Takes Steps To Leave Nashville

NASHVILLE, TN — After more than 160 years in the state capital and 111 at its current site, the Tennessee State Fair is exploring a move out of Nashville.

With a unanimous vote, the nine-member Tennessee State Fair and Exposition Commission decided to gauge the interest of all 95 of the state's counties in hosting the annual event, which has suffered from lagging attendance and logistical challenges at the Fairgrounds Nashville in recent years as nearby county fairs have thrived. (For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Middle Tennessee Patch morning newsletter.)

"Nothing in this proposal is any way critical of Metro or the Metro fair commissioners," commission chairman Bo Roberts said, according to The Tennessean. "It's just we have a site that's constrained by topography and facilities, and it would not be expected for Metro to make a major investment in a two-week tenant."

A report detailed the problems with the Fairgrounds Nashville and explored other sites, including the location of Bonnaroo, though the report detailed problems there as well and the board is unlikely to pursue it.

The state fair has been in Nashville since 1855, for one year at a site in North Nashville, followed by a stint near what is now the Trevecca Nazarene University campus until 1869. The state then purchased what is now Centennial Park to serve as a fairgrounds until it was sold to the City of Nashville in 1897. In 1900, a group of Nashville merchants began a push for renewed fair, eventually purchasing the current fairgrounds site on Nolensville Road, where the fair has been since 1906.

Despite its longevity, it's decreasingly unpopular. In 2015, the state fair drew about 100,000 people. Meanwhile, the Williamson County Fair drew 200,000 and the Wilson County Fair, widely considered the best county fair in the state and regularly mentioned as one of the nation's best, drew 500,000.

The fair commission plans to submit a proposal to Gov. Bill Haslam about relocation — which could include a permanent state ag expo site — by the end of the year with an eye towards relocation for 2019. The contract with the Fairgrounds Nashville ends in 2018.

The recommendation for a new site is for 600 acres, preferably near an interstate exit, similar to what the James E. Ward Ag Center in Lebanon, the home of the Wilson County Fair, offers. There was also discussion of moving the fair to October. The state fair was in October during the 19th century and in the first year of the resurrection in 1906, but went to its current September scheduled in 1907.

This year's fair is set for September 8-17.

Image via Tennessee State Fair and Exposition Commission