ACF 411 EPISODE 1 (FAIR PREVIEW)

On the premiere episode of ACF 411, Troy and Russ talk about what to expect to hear on the podcast and preview the 2024 Allen County Fair!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Well, welcome to the very firstepisode of our podcast called acm FO A
long which stan f YadA County FairInformation and I'm your host. Trustecker in
joining me in our podcast studio isthe manager of the Young County Fair,
Troy Troy. Welcome, Russ,thanks for having me on today. I'm
really excited about starting this podcast series. I think it's going to be a

(00:22):
neat addition to our nine day fair. So let's talk a little bit about
what we expect the podcast series tobe. So we're actually taking today,
we're taking this really nice ihard studioduring a new central district in downtown Alata.
But during the fair, we're actuallygonna take these really unique podcast studio.
Will probably sound like we're in abattleship, but uh, but it's

(00:45):
going to be the old milking parlorin the dairy partner. It is,
yes, and we're gonna call itthe podcast parlor, which I think is
a great play on words the parlor. There was at one point a functional
parlor where they would actually milk cows, and it's got all the same equipment
in it. But now we're goingto convert that thing over to a podcast
studio. To see how it willwork. Yeah, it's how a whole

(01:07):
wall of windows which attracted us toit. So as we're taking the podcasts
each night an the fair, thepublic's welcome to come out and watch and
listen, and I think the kidsare going Our focus is going to be
the junior fair, so we're goingto be talking to all these kids and
these projects that they worked really hardon, which brings me back to Troy
who showed for many years. Asthat's correct. Yeah, my my passion

(01:33):
has been in that fair grounds forbasically the entirety of my life. I
started exhibiting swine projects there. Forthose of you that don't know, the
technical term swine means pigs. ButI've been showing pigs at the fairground since
I've been three years old, andthen showed all the way up through four
H and FFA until I was eighteenand graduated high school. Cool. So

(01:55):
what five letter word means pigs?Swine? Ooh, I was thinking bacon.
But okay, so you can tellwe're gonna have a little bit of
fun on the podcast. We're goingto try to have it. We're going
to try and make it informational,but at the same time enjoy some of
the fun of the fair. SoI think the kids will really enjoy that

(02:19):
too. Yeah, so let's talkabout first, let's talk about the physical
fair grounds, because I think peopleare going to see if they haven't been
out to the fairground since the fairlast year or a couple of years,
maybe they haven't been out for acouple of years, they're going to see
some different physical structures that are different. You want to talk about those?
Yeah, you're exactly right, Russ. Myself and our board of directors and

(02:40):
really our staff are extremely proud ofwhat we've been able to accomplish these last
couple of years in terms of capitalprojects, large and small. I will
highlight a couple of those right now, just to give people a little sneak
peak of what to look forward to. One of those, in particular that
we're extremely proud of is our newSheep and Goat Show arena. For those

(03:00):
of you and the listeners that arefamiliar with the fairgrounds. We had a
pre existing building there that sat forquite some time, and really it was
a good problem that we were facedwith our four H and FFA numbers in
the sheep and Goat departments, weregrowing astronomically and they just outgrew the building,
so there was a need for somethinglarger to accommodate that influx numbers.

(03:22):
So now we have a fifty byone to ninety five building that's roughly nine
seven hundred and fifty square feet.It's going to be able to house close
to five hundred people to be ableto watch these exhibitions, and you're also
going to have a much larger footprintfor the show arena for the kids to
safely exhibit those animals. We're veryexcited about that one and grateful because a

(03:45):
project like that is not accomplishable withoutthe following parties. We got some We
got some funds from the State ofOhio. Matt Huffman and Bob Kupp helped
us with that. We received threehundred and ten thousand dollars from the state
for that project. We also receivedone hundred and eighty thousand dollars from our
Allen County Commissioners for that project.And then we also had two large donors
in Mercy Health, Saint Rita's andAllen County far Bureau to make that project

(04:10):
possible. Yeah, it was greatto see all those partners coming together,
which doesn't always happen in our community. So it was glad to see all
those names coming up. And howare you going to put all those names
on the building? I don't know. So we're going to do that in
a multitude of ways. The builderthat built the project is going to have
their own little placard to show theirpresence out there. The State of Ohio

(04:34):
probably at some point will have somesort of permanent placard on the building next
to one of the doors that'll talkabout all the parties involved, including the
commissioners as well. But the actualname of the building is going to be
the Mercy Health and Farm Bureau Showbarn. So those two donors got the naming

(04:55):
rights to that building, and we'llhave signage on the east and west ends.
Very cool, and I would beif I didn't mention it's right across
the midway from the Nutrient Ploudza stage. Pretty close. Yes, I got
that in there well, And I'mglad that you brought up Nutrient because I'd
like to give the listeners a littlesneak peek. Obviously Russ hasn't talked much

(05:15):
about himself yet, but representing Nutrient, I want to take this opportunity to
thank Nutrient for all that they dofor us at the fairgrounds. Obviously the
stage is named after them, buttheir footprint is left all over our one
hundred and thirty five acres of property, and we couldn't be more grateful for
what they do for us. Yeah, and as we talk about partners,
we can't forget about Alex sitting acrossthe table chat out there. iHeart is

(05:36):
big, So we want to reallythank them for helping us find a platform
for the podcast for the fair.So I think kids are going to be
thrilled about ACF four one one,and we couldn't do it without iHeart and
helping us with the podcast studio.So it's going to be great. You
have another building, though that isn'tas sexy, you know, sheep and

(05:57):
goat it's pretty sexy thing. Butyou have another new building out there.
You want to talk about that?Absolutely? Yes, So that sexy building
you're referring to that's not so sexyis our a new maintenance building, multipurpose
building. So what many folks don'trealize is other than our nine days of
the fair, our other three hundredand fifty odd days out of the year,
we utilize our footprint and facilities torent them out to other promoters for

(06:23):
other events. Well, the problemis is we have items, equipment,
things of that nature that we onlyuse during the fair. That stuff just
gets stored away the rest of thetime during the year. The problem is
is we've ran out of space withour facilities to store things like benches,
picnic tables, things of that nature, and our maintenance built, maintenance staff

(06:46):
and electricians have grown out of theirspace. So this new space is a
forty x sixty building on the southend of the property and it will house
our maintenance staff, our electricians willnow have their old building, which would
be the exact building to themselves.And we're also going to utilize this new
building for storage so that we canfree up some other spaces on the property

(07:06):
so that events are able to usethem throughout the year. Cool. So
great, great projects you went onat fair grounds. I think people are
going to be impressed when they comeout. Are you going to have I
get asked, most people won't knowwhat I'm talking about. Are you going
to have the green maultch again?That is the plan. Yes, we
couldn't be more grateful for one ofour bigger sponsors being Resource Mulch. They

(07:29):
always do a quality job for usfor our landscape beds, our show arenas,
our livestock barns. They've graciously donatedthe green mulch that goes in our
show arenas for the last couple ofyears. And I tell you what,
our four h kids have bought intothat, and now it's kind of become
a staple to where that's what they'relooking forward to each year because it's just
a unique twist that we can puton that experience for the kids. It

(07:53):
is and if you haven't been outto the show arena during any of the
judging or the livestock sale, themultch is so cool and it looks great
in pictures that looks like they're allstanding in a field of grass or whatever.
It's bright green, very very cooladdition, and it was a surprise
to people a couple of years ago, and it's become quickly a tradition of

(08:13):
like, you got to have thegreen mulch in the show arena. So
that's pretty neat. Absolutely, atfirst people were a little shaky about it
because they're, like, man,I spend all this time all summer making
sure my animals are in tip topshape, their skin and hair looks really
good, because a lot of alivestock show is presentation and they're like,
well, is this green mulch goingto stain my animals or anything like that.
But after we got through a trialrun, they realized that the dye

(08:37):
will come off on the animals,but it's easily removable, so our kids
don't have to worry too much.All right. So we've talked about the
fair grounds. We talked about thepodcast that we're going to be launching from
the parlor, which is all neatstuff. Let's talk about the fair itself.
Give folks a preview of what they'regoing to see coming up at the
one and seventy fourth Allen County Fair. Anything new this year? Yes,

(09:01):
we have lots of exciting things instore, and one thing in particular i'd
really like to touch on, justbecause I think it's going to be such
a unique aspect of our fair that'sbrand new, is we're bringing in an
organization called Tunnels to Towers. Haveyou ever heard of tunnels to Towers?
For us? I have not.Okay, I'm going to inform you a
little bit. So Tunnels of Towersis an organization. It's a nonprofit organization

(09:24):
and what they are going to bringin for us, and we're paying them
to do it's a traveling nine toeleven memorial museum. It comes in on
a semi tractor trailer that's eighty threefeet long and the trailer unfolds into an
eleven hundred square foot museum to commemoratenine to eleven in those that lost their

(09:46):
lives. Wow, very impressive.Yes, the tours will actually be given
by six to eight New York Cityfirefighters that were a part of Ground Zero
that day. And all of thefunds that this Tunnel to Tower organization makes
profit go into a fund where theywill purchase plots of land and basically build

(10:09):
communities and homes for wounded veterans,homeless veterans, first responders, police and
fire. So very very neat.Well, that's coot, and that's going
to be there for the whole ninedays. The whole nine days. The
museum will be open one to nineevery day and it is completely free.
So once you've paid your gate admissionto get into the fair that day,

(10:30):
the museum is completely free to enjoyas many times as you would like.
So I've got to ask this question. So it's free, right, but
is there an opportunity there if youwanted to support this cause because it sounds
like a great charity. They do. Actually you'll see a lot of their
advertisements on TV and on the radio, but I know they actually have like
a monthly subscription if people want todonate to their calls. I think it's

(10:52):
something as simple as eleven dollars amonth and that helps contribute to that fund
and profits that they use to buildthose communities. Right, Man, I
did not know about that, andit's I'm looking forward. I know we'll
go through it at least once.It's probably more than once, but absolutely,
and that in particular is not acheap endeavor to bring in on our
end. So we've actually been ableto gather quite a bit of support around

(11:16):
that, and we have sponsors thatare helping us bring that event in to
make that all possible excellent, Sowe're off to a good start. What
else is new for the Allen CountyFair this year? Yes, so we
have another free opportunity, free entertainmentopportunity out in our Rochman Park area.
As you know, it's out bythe shelterhouse and pond. It's called the
Extreme Raptors Show. So for thoseof you that are familiar with the fairgrounds

(11:39):
in with Rochman Park, historically we'vehad some sort of animal themed show because
that just fits the mold for what'sout in Rochman Park, nature, things
of that nature. So this showis specifically exotic birds that can perform tricks.
So they bring in bold eagles,out hawks, things of that nature.

(12:03):
And essentially they'll put on two tothree shows a day and the birds
will interact with the crowd, theland on people, the land on the
trainers. Again, another free entertainmentopportunity for the public to enjoy once they've
paid gate admission. Cool, verycool. How about some of the traditional
things? Anything exciting going on?Yeah? I think you have a concert?

(12:24):
Right? We do have a concert. We are well known for bringing
in a pretty solid show every year. This year, our big show is
on Saturday, August seventeenth. Thatshow is going to be headlined by Brothers
Osbourne, the world famous country duo, and their opener for that show is
going to be Corey Kent, anup and comer country Country Music Star.

(12:45):
So we're very excited about that show. I'd like to plug that tickets are
still on sale for that event,and if you haven't got them yet,
you certainly don't want to miss outon what we've got there. All right,
So we're in the grand stand.What else is going on in the
grandstand over nine days? Yes,we have a really solid lineup with a
lot of those traditional things that mostfair goers can be accustomed to but really
enjoy that We've been able to establishthat tradition. That's why we bring these

(13:09):
events back year after year that I'mgoing to allude to. So after the
concert, it kind of segues intoour QP Showcase of Bands, the High
School Band Show. In the grandstandson Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday is
harness racing. Wednesday is our cheerleadingcompetition. Thursday is a really cool event
that we brought back a couple ofyears ago and it's really stuck. Our

(13:30):
livestock Scramble Russ. Do you knowwhat a livestock scramble you it do?
It's a pretty unique opportunity that wespecifically make exclusive to kids in Allen County.
Anybody from the age of I believefive all the way up to the
age of eighteen can sign up forthis event. But I thought you squeaked
in there last year? How didthat? People wanted me to try to
wrangle a calf? And to behonest with you, if I'd go down

(13:54):
during the fair, I think I'dbe in trouble and maybe without a job
afterwards. But but essentially the maingoal of this event for each of the
kids. There's divisions for chickens,sheep, and calves. They have to
safely restrain the animal, and thekid to do it. The quickest wins
a price. So that's always afun one, a cool, youth oriented
one that we've really enjoyed. Andthen we round out the second weekend of

(14:18):
the fair with the demo derby onFriday and the truck pulls on Saturday.
Sounds good, busy, busy grandstand all week busy grand stands. Yes,
But a lot of folks ask us, and I want to take this
opportunity to kind of explain this.A lot of folks say, well,
I go to other county fairs andmy gated mission includes all of the grand

(14:39):
stand events, or it includes therides that they have on the grounds.
But what people don't realize is thatour County Fair is either third or fourth
in the state of Ohio in termsof size and scale. So to bring
in the rides and entertainment that wedo, to bring in the grand stand
events that we do, it's anextremely costly venture. So that's why we

(15:01):
have things like tunnels to Towers orthe Extreme Raptors Show or our events on
the Nutrient Plaza stage to kind ofhave value added to that ticket. So
we've talked about the grand stand.You alluded to the midway, so let's
talk about Poor Jack's coming back.Yes, the Bolander family is a class
act and a wonderful family to workwith. The Fairgrounds has been in contract

(15:22):
with them as our ride provider anda lot of our games for way longer
than I've been alive, and they'resuch a cool crew to work with.
They come with somewhere between twenty fiveto thirty rides and multiple games for all
ages and sizes to enjoy. Solet's sort of wrap up our preview of
the fair. I'm just kind oftaking us across the fair noown. So

(15:45):
we were at the grand stand andwe were on the midway, so let's
go back to the barns talk aboutthe Junior Fair and how important that is
to the overall fair. I cannotspeak highly enough for our four H and
FFA programs in our community right herein a county. As I stated earlier
on in this podcast, I grewup a four h kid. I grew

(16:07):
up an FFA kid. And thelife skills that are instilled in these kids
by bringing projects to the Fair,the skills that it teaches those kids or
something that they can take with themto whatever future endeavor they decide that they
want to embark on. And reallythis nine days of the Fair is the
opportunity to reward those kids with areally good experience for all of the hard

(16:30):
work that they've put in throughout thesummer across all of the departments. So
I want to talk a minute abouton Thursday night and then Friday it continues,
the livestock auction takes place down inthe show Rita. This is a
really important event for the Junior Fairkids. But talk about I think there's
a misconception. People say, well, I can't go to the livestock auction

(16:52):
because what would I do if Ibought a chicken? Or I bought a
cow. I don't have anything toany place to put this, so explain
to me what are they actually biddingon. It is one of the most
common misconceptions, and what they're actuallybidding on is monies that will go towards
the kid's overall premium afterwards for theproject. What folks don't know is that

(17:15):
there actually is an opportunity that ifyou want some freezer meat and you would
really like a particular pig, thatcan be coordinated and pre arranged if you
would like to purchase the animal directlyfrom the kid and then have the meat
later. But really it's we're tryingto drive as much traffic as we can
to that livestock auction because it isone of the most important parts of our

(17:36):
fair to support those kids that havededicated ours labor monies to make these projects
what they are. So we encouragebusiness owners, we encourage just general public
people to come down and support thatauction because we need to feed the passion
that the kids have. And ifthere's no light at the end of the

(17:56):
tunnel and there's no reward that theycan continue on their path, we're kind
of really doing them a disservice.It's really a great lesson in business one
oh one because they understand how muchwork it took to say, raise that
that hog, what it caused themto buy the hog, feed the hog,
take care of the hog for thelast year, and now this is
payday. And so but I dothink I'm glad you cleared that up because

(18:19):
I think people understand. Don't understand. Okay, I paid three hundred bucks
for a hog. I don't getthe hog, but that's three hundred dollars
we're giving to that kid, thatjunior fair exhibitor to say thank you for
work. It's your payday, right, and we hope they pay more than
three hundred. But I'm just throwingthat out there. Exactly I should I
should throw a plug in because becauseI want to give credit where credits due.

(18:44):
Nutrient is obviously extremely involved in thelivestock auction and a great supporter,
as are many other businesses in thecommunity. But we accomplished a pretty awesome
feat last year. We broke tworecords. Last year, we broke the
record for most funds ever brought infor in all that we've had on the
grounds the livestock auction. It grosseda little over seven hundred and seventy thousand

(19:06):
dollars, and out of the sixteenhundred projects that went through the ring over
to a two day period, therewasn't a kid that walked away with less
than a four hundred and seventy fivedollars check. That's fabulous. Hopefully we
can set records again in twenty twentyfour would be good. That's the goal.
Man. All Right, So we'rekind of wrapping this preview up,

(19:29):
but we just wanted again and youknow, checking into that the tunnels the
towers thing. I think somebody wassaying, I think Fort Jennings that they
were over the Fort Jennings Festival anda huge hit. So if you didn't
sit it in Fort Jennings, makesure you see it at the Allen County
Fair. If you saw it atfor Jennings and say, oh wow,
this is cool, here's the chanceto come back and just one of many

(19:52):
things you could do while you're atthe Allen County Fair. Before we wrap
up, though, because I knowAlex and I probably think of this same
thing when we go to the fair, talk about the food real quick,
fair food man. Yes, fairfood is something that I look forward to
every year, and that hasn't changedsince I've been just a little boy.
But we have a great staff inour office, specifically Dar when it comes

(20:17):
to our vendors, that always bringsin a incredible lineup of diversified food to
where basically anybody with any type ofcraving or palette is going to find something
out at the fairgrounds, if it'ssomething as extravagant as a Ribbi sandwich or
something as simple as a funnel cake. We've got lots of exciting food options
in store for this year, anda couple new food vendors to look forward

(20:41):
to as well. All Right,I mean, save a fried oreo for
me the answer, So troy AlWert, the manager of the Allen County
Fair, thanks for joining us today, Russ, thanks for having me on,
Alex. Thanks for making this allsound good because it's pretty tough with
these guys to sound good. Andyou to keep checking back on our podcast

(21:02):
because we're going to have a numberof podcasts through the course of the Allen
County Fair. So come on outenjoy the fair. If you're there and
we're recording a podcast, please stopbuy We're gonna have a picnic tables outside
on the other side of the glass, so you can sit down and enjoy
a lemon shake or whatever and listento the podcast and we'll see you at
the fair. Thank you.