Georgetown Fair Board of Directors president Don Hackler says the recently announced permanent move of the Georgetown Fair to July starting next year was actually decided upon this past winter. But in order to avoid confusion with this year’s August fair dates, they announced it once the fair was underway and then completed.
Hackler says next year’s Georgetown Fair dates of Saturday July 8th through Saturday July 15th came about for a couple reasons. One, students displaying livestock need to get to school. And this year’s Georgetown Fair was right up against the start of school in Illinois, and even overlapped a bit with early starters in Indiana.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: You know school systems, they allow a certain number of missed days for this, that, and the other; and you don’t always use those up your first week of attendance.
Also on the display side, there was the issue of being sandwiched in between the Indiana State Fair and Illinois State Fair.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: A lot of our people, especially in the livestock side of things, try to come and show at our fair; and then have to exit very quickly in order to get to Springfield in a timely manner to make their entry requirement over there.
As many have pointed out, next year’s starting Georgetown Fair date; Saturday, July 8th; is the same day as the final day of Balloons Over Vermilion. Hackler says he doesn’t see any trouble getting food vendors lined up despite the nearby event. But then again, there’s also some overlap with a certain Champaign County event next year as well.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: We’ve also got a little bit of conflict, we’ve been told, with the Fischer Fair. So we’ve got some scheduling ideas to work out with that particular entity as well. So there’s a lot of things to still be finalized.
Hackler says one of the first priorities to finalize is next year’s Georgetown Fair grandstand events; making sure all the dates are okay for those involved.
