43
Canfield Fair nearly here
By Kalea Hall
CANFIELD
The 171st Canfield Fair will be all about remembering the past, celebrating the present and looking to the future.
The events of this year’s fair, running Aug. 30-Sept. 4, coincide with the theme: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.
A piece of the past is coming back in the form of pony and horse races hosted by Junior Fair. Funds raised from the races will go toward the fair’s five-year $4.5 million capital campaign for projects including a new Junior Fair coliseum coming in 2018.
Members of the Canfield Fair board of directors discussed the capital campaign and this year’s special fair offerings on Thursday.
“Things are in motion,” said Andy Frost, president of the Canfield Fair Board of Directors. “The office is as busy as could be.”
David Dickey, fair board vice president, said $2 million has been raised so far for the capital campaign, which the Canfield Fair Foundation launched in March.
“We are working with very generous donors,” Dickey said. “We are going to offer bids on the building the week after the fair.”
The youth involved in the fair are also getting involved in raising funds.
“They are doing all they can to see that this comes to happen,” said Ward Campbell, fair board director, who oversees Junior Fair.
To build the show arena/event center and ancillary buildings and barns will cost $4 million.
Another half-million dollars will be raised and set aside for infrastructure improvements.
To start the fundraising effort, the Canfield Fair Board of Directors pledged $400,000 to the project.
The new buildings will be located where the antique tractors, Old McDonald’s Barn and open sheep and goat barns currently are in the fairground’s southeast section. Those fair features will be relocated to where the Junior Fair is in the northeast section.
The move will bring all Junior Fair participants closer together. The dairy and beef breeders in Junior Fair already were relocated to the southeast end.
Twenty or more years ago, the horse and pony racing at the grandstand was a big event, but it lost favor. Now, the Junior Fair members are bringing back the races. Junior Fair Races will take place from 12-1 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and from 1-2 p.m. on Monday. They will be in between the regularly scheduled harness races that take place in the grandstand.
“They really were hungry to get involved,” said Elwood “Woody” Woolman, fair board director who oversees hay and grain, harness racing, honey and machinery row.
A new interactive program this year is Canfield Fair Ag-Venture, which takes participants on a tour of the agricultural side of the fair. Participants receive a stamp inside their Canfield Fair program for each stop they make on the 11-stop Ag-Venture. Prizes will be given at the last stop.
Also new this year is Akron Children’s Day taking place on Aug. 31, the day children get in free. There will be activities for children including a life-sized version of the game “Operation.”
Wednesday through Friday there will be senior health/rest stations with water and cooling areas at two stops located at each end of the fairgrounds.
Also new this year, the Canfield Fair partnered with JAC LIVE to book music acts. The partnership makes fair concert tickets available on ticketmaster.com.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee John Mellencamp will perform in the grandstand Sept. 3 with special guest Carlene Carter. On Sept. 4, Grammy-nominated country singer Chris Young will perform.