March 18, 2024

Union County Fair adds concert, extra day

Additions and alterations are in order for this year’s Union County Fair.

While historically a Saturday through Thursday fair, this year’s event will be held Thursday, July 20, through Wednesday, July 26, at the Union County Fairgrounds in Afton.

According to Union County Fair Board President Dannie Stephens, the changes were a long time coming.

“For quite a while,” said Stephens, “we’ve been kind of crunched — swine, sheep, everything was all the same day. The horse show, small animals — they were all on the same day. So this will give us a little more time to spread those out, hopefully, and get those in (the fair) a little bit better than we have in the past.”

On top of adding a day to the fair’s length, the meat of the fair’s schedule will now be held over the weekend.

“By going over the weekend,” Stephens said, “we’re hoping it’ll help some of the working parents be able to be at the fair a little bit more, without having to take off work quite as much.

“Before,” Stephens continued, “the livestock came in Sunday afternoon and was there through Thursday. So parents had to be mostly showing during the week, which wasn’t good.”

A Saturday concert is also planned as the fair readjusts its schedule.

Jake Worthington, country artist and runner-up on season six of NBC TV show “The Voice,” will headline the night’s entertainment.

And the fair’s parade, previously held on Sunday evening, is moved to Saturday evening directly preceding the concert. But for those interested in the fair’s free night of entertainment, the fair’s opening day may be ideal.

“We’ll have the queen’s crowning at 6 p.m. (on Thursday),” said Stephens. “It will be followed by the mounted shooting in the rodeo arena, and the Bill Riley talent show in the commercial building that evening. So we’ve added a little bit more to our free night of entertainment, and got rid of some other conflicts.”

And if late-July temperatures were worrisome for fair patrons in the past, Stephens hopes to keep crowds cool with the help of some new technology.

“One other big change,” Stephens said, “and this just kind of happened here recently — is that we got three big portable fans for the fair. So when we have heat, we’ll have better cooling in the exhibit building, and in the commercial building. Those two buildings have been pretty hot in the past, so we’ve got three fans that will each put out vapor and cool 15 to 20 degrees for a pretty good sized space.”

Lastly, Stephens hopes the fair’s open class competitions will be freshly reinvorgated this year.

“We’ve got Sharon Gardner,” said Stephens, “who came on the (fair) board this year. She’s helped in the 4-H building for years, and she’s handling that open-class now, and we’ll try and get that built back up because there’s more interest in that area. So we’ve got a renewed effort to get our open class back up to what it was a few years ago, and get them a little more presence.

“So we’re really excited about having a good fair,” Stephens continued. “Like I say — the concert is kind of a new addition. And other than that, everything’s pretty much what we’ve been doing in the past. We’re pretty excited about what we’ve got going on.”

The Union County Fair’s full schedule may be viewed on the event’s website, at unioncountyfairiowa.com. Event information and updates are also available on the Union County Fair’s Facebook page.