November 19, 2025 • 16 mins
On this edition of ACF 411, Russ Decker is joined by Fair GM Troy Elwer to talk about what to look forward to this holiday season at Bright Nights!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, are we ready? Welcome back to ACF four
one one, the official podcast of the Allen County Fair.
I'm your host Nutrients Russ Decker and by the way,
this is episode number thirty seven in our second season,
and then we'll start a new season here in twenty
twenty six. Excited about it. Thirty seven episodes. That's pretty incredible.
(00:22):
With me in the studio where the iHeart Central District
Studio today and I have Troy Elwer like the man
of the Allen County Fair, the manager. He's got five
five titles his business cards like legal signs. But Troy,
how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm doing good. Thanks for having me on today. You know,
I'm a little surprised that you gave me such a
nice introduction because normally when you have a microphone, all
you ever want to do is bash me or pick
on me or something of that nature.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
So am must have straightened you out or something.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah. Well, you know, so we are getting into the
holiday season, which makes me think about you know, like
turkey and all those so I will ask you, but
I know you're a hog guy. Oh boy, A lot
of people have ham for their Christmas meal, right, yeah, yeah,
So do you know the difference between a pig and
(01:10):
a shooting star?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Boy, I got nothing.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
See the pig has a lot of meat on it,
but a shooting star is.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Meteor Alex, can you cueue up the cricket noise? Okay?
So we're off to a roll start.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Here on episode thirty seven, I didn't want to disappoint you.
Try we had to throw one of those in. Oh boy,
and it's hard to find a holiday hog joke.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
So there we go. There we go.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So let's talk about it's that season. It's actually my
next to the fair week. Probably my favorite season of
the year is the Christmas holidays. And I think you
guys hit a home run when you came up with
Bright Nights. And I know this sort of a it
started out as kind of a you're putting your head
together with Mercy and now it's just like grown. So
let's talk about is this what year is this for
(02:02):
the Bright Night?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Year? Six? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
So it started during COVID and the it idea was
sparked by Chad Hughes, who was manager at the time.
For a short stint through the Fairgrounds and in partnering
with Mercy Health, he sat down with Ronda. I know
we had her on last year, I believe, and and
and that's kind of where the idea sparked. The event
(02:26):
started the very first year with Mercy's initial sponsorship of
fifty thousand dollars to purchase displays. We got roughly I
think it was around sixty displays purchased with that sponsorship.
This coming year we will have three hundred and three
displays on the route.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
So that's more a couple glad.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So if you went the first year, you're going to
see more.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Of this time. Yeah. Absolutely, Well I'll just put.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
It you know, you know your Delphis kid. I wanted
to make sure that you understood.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Wow, more right, you know the camera is still rolling, right,
I do? I do so.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I mean it is exciting. It's not something you can
blow through in five minutes. It's probably gonna take you,
what twenty twenty five minutes to drive through the entire
the entire route to see all those displays.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, it's twenty to twenty five minutes. And we encourage
people to more or less idle through the route, especially
when it's busy, because you'll find we tell people not
to stop during the route and absolutely do not get
out of your vehicles to take pictures with displays because
that's a huge safety concern. But with vehicles running, lights
being on only and idling through and stopping, you just
(03:40):
kind of have to be precautious because you can get
lost in the overwhelming amount of displays that are there
and wanting to look at them. So just trying to
keep everybody at a safe speed. A good clip going
through twenty to twenty five minutes will take you through
about one point one miles worth of Christmas light displays.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Well, it's gonna be fun, and we encourage everybody. It
starts at the end of November and it runs through
Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Christmas Eve yep, so we Our first night is Saturday,
November twenty ninth, which is the day after Black Friday.
Will be open six pm to nine pm.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So that's after the Michigan game, yep, exactly, so you
can come out and celebrate your Buckeye win.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, you got that right, and then we'll obviously be
open that Sunday as well. I do encourage everyone to
go to our website though, alancofair dot com because there
is one Friday that we're not open because of the
tri Stategun Show. But then all of the other weekends
were Friday, Saturday, and Sunday leading up to the weekend
before Christmas. The weekend before Christmas will be open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
(04:46):
which is Christmas Eve and will be the last night
of the event.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I need And so it's it's how much a car load.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
It's ten dollars per car, thirty dollars per bus, and
as much as you can safely fit in a bus
or in a vehicle. But we're also adding a new
method of transportation this year. Hopefully I'm not stealing your thunder,
but we'll segue right into it.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Do tell new mode of transportation.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yes, so on Sundays only, we're going to be offering
a trolley ride through Bright Nights and that will be
five dollars per person. So what you'll do is you'll
pull in just like you normally would park in our
parking lot. You go up to the ticket booth, you
pay your five dollars. This trolley that'll be pulled by
(05:31):
a lawn tractor or something of that nature. We'll be
sitting right there. You'll be loaded onto the trolley and
you will be pulled through bright nights and really get
a hands on kind of unique experience to be able
to view these displays other than just from your vehicle.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Neat that sounds actually like it'd be a lot of fun,
especially if it's a kind of a chilly night. And
certainly one of the things that we like to talk
about is the caroling that goes on, and you'd be
able to hear that a lot better on the trolley
of being outside.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Right, absolutely, And that's thanks to a great partnership with
Nutrient So we're grateful for you guys and helping make
that caroling thing possible. But it's our second year of
doing that and our slots are already filled for this year.
We've got a ton of unique groups caroling this year.
And I think the thing that everybody needs to know,
because I get questions like this all the time. Do
(06:25):
we have to be a professional or expert organized group
that that sings for a living or or sings as
a profession. That is not what we're looking for. That's
fine if if you want to sign up and you
are an organized group, that is very good ecceeding. But
we're really looking at looking at this is a fun
holiday fundraising opportunity for groups and organizations in the community.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
And uh, I think we really got that this year.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
We have the Alan East powerlifting team signed up, We've
got the Bath Junior High girls basketball team signed up,
We've got the Temple Christian and volleyball team signed up.
Alanie's SAD program is signed up, a choir group out
of Saint Mary's, So all across the board, we've got
a pretty cool lineup of groups.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And you know what I like about this is that
it's it's kind of like I remember caroling when I
was growing up, where you would just get a bunch
of the kids in the neighborhood and say let's go
ahead and go caroling for through our neighborhood. And usually
we couldn't sing, so that was so this is what
brings back those memories of hearing. I mean, I'm looking
forward to the powerlifters because I would imagine that's going
to be like a you know, knock it out of
(07:32):
the park kind of choir right there.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Absolutely, And one thing that we're going to do now
that the schedule's kind of set, be on the lookout
on the fair social media pages on Facebook Instagram and
TikTok where we'll be actually publicizing that schedule and who's
singing what night because we know that mom and Dad,
Grandma and grandpa are gonna want to go out and
see the kiddos caroling that night. So I think it's
(07:56):
going to be a pretty cool opportunity all the way around.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So it's here six.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
I would imagine that, like anything else, these displays probably
take some maintenance. They probably break down over time, got
to make some repairs or replace them. So you guys
found a unique partnership with Apollo. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yes, so very cool partnership that we just started this year.
Thanks to Keith Horner at Apollo that kind of helped
me get this started, as well as Jamie Buell before
she left. She no longer works there, but she helped
me get it started as well in working with Apollos welding,
fabrication and electrical programs. So what this partnership is is
(08:34):
the welding and fabrication kids came to me with three designs.
I then approved the designs, ordered the materials, they built,
welded and built these displays for us. They then got
transferred from the welding shop over to the electrical shop.
We then placed a light rope led light rope order
(08:55):
for the electrical kids, and the electrical kids were tasked
with wiring these up and making them look like you
look like they will when they drive through the event.
And I've got to see these three displays already and
they are super cool. I will let the cat out
of the bag with at least one of them. The
other two will leave as a surprise. But they built
us a twelve foot tall grinch head this year, and
(09:18):
we don't have the Grinch on our route yet. And
he is very cool.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Oh, that is neat. That's very neat.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, and you talked about maintenance and a progression plan,
and that's what's really cool about this partnership is, yes,
we're paying for the materials and we're also going to
pay as part of Apollo's percentage program for doing a
community project like this, we also pay basically the programs
for their work or percentage of it. But what we're
(09:48):
going to do, since we have three displays coming in,
We're going to take a look at like our three
oldest displays that we have or that are six years old,
and ones that the guys, the maintenance guys have to
work on every year just to get them functioning or
to skim them by. We're simply going to remove them
from the route and replace them.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
With these new displays.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Because that one point one miles I was referring to,
we're quickly running out of electrical infrastructure with our existing route,
and we've already changed it three times in six years.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, so I just think that's when you first told
me about it. I thought, what a great partnership, because
you got the welding kids involved, you got the electrical
electrician kids involved, and so this is this is a
real life projects where they'll be able to drive through
and you know, a couple of years from now, they'll
drive through with all their friends when they're home from
school or whatever, and they'll go, look, I put that together.
I remember building the grinches head and that's a pretty
(10:42):
cool thing.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Absolutely, And that really even the partnership like this goes
back to a lot of what our mission is at
the Fairgrounds. It's promoting youth through agricultural experiences. And I
know Bright Nights isn't necessarily an agricultural experience, but it
is giving these youth a really cool opportunity to exercise
the skills that they're building, the curriculum that their programs
(11:06):
are based around of, but doing it in a fun
way around the holidays and getting exposure to over roughly
twenty five thousand people each and every year that come
through our Bright Nights event.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I didn't prep you ahead of time, so I
don't mean to stump you or anything, but oh, that's what.
But I'm sitting here and I'm going this is really
cool because we're talking about Bright Nights. It's not the fair,
it's something else that goes on at the fair. But
the fair grounds is more than nine days. I mean,
you guys have things going on throughout the year. This
just happens to be a big one. But could you
(11:38):
talk about how busy the fair grounds is off fair
because I know there are a lot of people, I know,
some of them personally, that think you work like nine
or ten days a year.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And then well, when he says personal, he means himself. Yeah,
I was just about to say, you said the fairgrounds
is hopping. Yet each and every day that you call me,
and it's not during the fair, it's sorry, did I
wake you? Like you think I only worked ten days
out of the year anyways. Yes, we have a very
busy schedule even this time of year. Our fairgrounds is
(12:08):
home to one hundred and fifty events in a calendar
year aside from the nine days of the fair, and
that could be something as small as an organization's annual
meeting all the way up to Maxis Trader Days and
water dog races that covers the whole property. Think of
that one hundred and fifty events in a three hundred
and sixty five day calendar year. It is very difficult
(12:29):
to find an open time slot and date on our
calendar to bring in a new event. That's something that
the board tasked me with to try to bring in
new events to generate more revenue. But that's becoming more
increasingly difficult because with these partnerships that we've built up
with these promoters, they're wanting to continue to come back
and have those events with us.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah. I was just thinking we had a big maker
Fest out there where we had sixteen hundred high school
kids from twenty one schools, one hundred and some employers
out at the fair grounds for two or three days.
But then I remember talking to your maintenance staff who
they were talking to us on the last day that Friday,
they had to get everybody out of the buildings as
quickly as they could because there was a wedding setting
up that night for Saturday the very next day. So
(13:13):
it's just amazing how quickly your staff turns the buildings
around and turns the grounds around so that next event
can move in. So I just wanted to have a
chance that we could talk about that that the Fairgrounds
is a busy, busy.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Place, absolutely, and that same Saturday that you're referring to,
we also had a food truck festival on the south
end of the property. So I'm glad that you brought
up the maintenance staff though, because when we talk about
that number of events and how busy we are, I
really need to give kudos where kudos is due to
our maintenance staff and our office staff that just makes
(13:46):
it happen. I mean, it is a team effort when
it comes to pulling off a feat like that and
being a year round business. I mean, we're a nonprofit organization,
but we operate like a business. And the team that
we have out at the Fairgrounds is just appssolutely stellar
and I gotta say thank you to each and every
one of them for the countless hours they put in
to make us one of the top fairs in the
(14:07):
state of Ohio.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So let's get back to bright Night's yeah, real quick.
So where's the money go? I mean, so obviously it's
a fundraiser for the fair. You don't have that many
non fair fair fundraisers. So where do these funds go?
What does this support?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, so a little bit is held back every year
from the so called profits of the event. And when
I say held back, they're held back to roll into
next year's event. That's either to put towards the maintenance
cost of displays that we have go down and or
adding to the event and why it's grown so large
over the last six years. The rest of the funds
(14:45):
that are raised from this event go into a lot
of the capital projects that you've seen us do here.
Over the last really three and a half years especially,
we've been able to.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Accomplish a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So we're really going with the mindset motto of investing
in ourselves but also getting the community to invest into us.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Well. In order to.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Get the community to continue to invest into us, we
need to show them that we're also putting our money
where our mouth is and really creating a better overall
experience for all fair goers that come through our gates
throughout the entire calendar year.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So we have to end with the most important part,
which is again the dates and times for the bright Nights,
the cost and anything else you think they need to
know when they get there, maybe how they come in
off of Harding Highway, those kinds of.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Things they do.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yes, So again, like you said, our starting date is Saturday,
November twenty ninth. Every night that we're open, we're open
from six pm to nine pm. It's ten dollars per
car cash only. By the way, that's something I didn't
touch on. We don't offer cards, so it's cash only
ten dollars per car, thirty dollars per bus, and then
(15:56):
on Sundays it's five dollars per person to ride the
trial through Bright Nights. To find all of our dates
in case you're looking to make it one of the nights,
you can go to Alancofair dot com to find our dates,
and I think that basically covers most of the pertinent
information that people would want to know. You think I
left anything out.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
On November twenty ninth. Is it twenty dollars that they
have a Michigan plate.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I just absolutely okay, I just wanted to clarify that's
on the record.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Troy Elware, thanks again for joining us on ACF four
one one. I love doing these podcasts about the Allen
County Fair, and we'll come back in the spring and
do another one and talk about all the spring stuff
that comes up because you have the fish fry and
all kinds of things going on. I want to think
Alex Wilfara, our engineer from my heart, and and Decker,
our videographer who gets us on YouTube. That's pretty neat.
(16:48):
And this wraps up episode thirty seven. Can't believe it already.
So we'll catch you next time on ACF four one
one
All right, are we ready? Welcome back to ACF four
one one, the official podcast of the Allen County Fair.
I'm your host Nutrients Russ Decker and by the way,
this is episode number thirty seven in our second season,
and then we'll start a new season here in twenty
twenty six. Excited about it. Thirty seven episodes. That's pretty incredible.
(00:22):
With me in the studio where the iHeart Central District
Studio today and I have Troy Elwer like the man
of the Allen County Fair, the manager. He's got five
five titles his business cards like legal signs. But Troy,
how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm doing good. Thanks for having me on today. You know,
I'm a little surprised that you gave me such a
nice introduction because normally when you have a microphone, all
you ever want to do is bash me or pick
on me or something of that nature.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
So am must have straightened you out or something.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah. Well, you know, so we are getting into the
holiday season, which makes me think about you know, like
turkey and all those so I will ask you, but
I know you're a hog guy. Oh boy, A lot
of people have ham for their Christmas meal, right, yeah, yeah,
So do you know the difference between a pig and
(01:10):
a shooting star?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Boy, I got nothing.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
See the pig has a lot of meat on it,
but a shooting star is.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Meteor Alex, can you cueue up the cricket noise? Okay?
So we're off to a roll start.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Here on episode thirty seven, I didn't want to disappoint you.
Try we had to throw one of those in. Oh boy,
and it's hard to find a holiday hog joke.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
So there we go. There we go.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So let's talk about it's that season. It's actually my
next to the fair week. Probably my favorite season of
the year is the Christmas holidays. And I think you
guys hit a home run when you came up with
Bright Nights. And I know this sort of a it
started out as kind of a you're putting your head
together with Mercy and now it's just like grown. So
let's talk about is this what year is this for
(02:02):
the Bright Night?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Year? Six? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
So it started during COVID and the it idea was
sparked by Chad Hughes, who was manager at the time.
For a short stint through the Fairgrounds and in partnering
with Mercy Health, he sat down with Ronda. I know
we had her on last year, I believe, and and
and that's kind of where the idea sparked. The event
(02:26):
started the very first year with Mercy's initial sponsorship of
fifty thousand dollars to purchase displays. We got roughly I
think it was around sixty displays purchased with that sponsorship.
This coming year we will have three hundred and three
displays on the route.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
So that's more a couple glad.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So if you went the first year, you're going to
see more.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Of this time. Yeah. Absolutely, Well I'll just put.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
It you know, you know your Delphis kid. I wanted
to make sure that you understood.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Wow, more right, you know the camera is still rolling, right,
I do? I do so.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I mean it is exciting. It's not something you can
blow through in five minutes. It's probably gonna take you,
what twenty twenty five minutes to drive through the entire
the entire route to see all those displays.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, it's twenty to twenty five minutes. And we encourage
people to more or less idle through the route, especially
when it's busy, because you'll find we tell people not
to stop during the route and absolutely do not get
out of your vehicles to take pictures with displays because
that's a huge safety concern. But with vehicles running, lights
being on only and idling through and stopping, you just
(03:40):
kind of have to be precautious because you can get
lost in the overwhelming amount of displays that are there
and wanting to look at them. So just trying to
keep everybody at a safe speed. A good clip going
through twenty to twenty five minutes will take you through
about one point one miles worth of Christmas light displays.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Well, it's gonna be fun, and we encourage everybody. It
starts at the end of November and it runs through
Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Christmas Eve yep, so we Our first night is Saturday,
November twenty ninth, which is the day after Black Friday.
Will be open six pm to nine pm.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So that's after the Michigan game, yep, exactly, so you
can come out and celebrate your Buckeye win.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, you got that right, and then we'll obviously be
open that Sunday as well. I do encourage everyone to
go to our website though, alancofair dot com because there
is one Friday that we're not open because of the
tri Stategun Show. But then all of the other weekends
were Friday, Saturday, and Sunday leading up to the weekend
before Christmas. The weekend before Christmas will be open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
(04:46):
which is Christmas Eve and will be the last night
of the event.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I need And so it's it's how much a car load.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
It's ten dollars per car, thirty dollars per bus, and
as much as you can safely fit in a bus
or in a vehicle. But we're also adding a new
method of transportation this year. Hopefully I'm not stealing your thunder,
but we'll segue right into it.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Do tell new mode of transportation.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yes, so on Sundays only, we're going to be offering
a trolley ride through Bright Nights and that will be
five dollars per person. So what you'll do is you'll
pull in just like you normally would park in our
parking lot. You go up to the ticket booth, you
pay your five dollars. This trolley that'll be pulled by
(05:31):
a lawn tractor or something of that nature. We'll be
sitting right there. You'll be loaded onto the trolley and
you will be pulled through bright nights and really get
a hands on kind of unique experience to be able
to view these displays other than just from your vehicle.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Neat that sounds actually like it'd be a lot of fun,
especially if it's a kind of a chilly night. And
certainly one of the things that we like to talk
about is the caroling that goes on, and you'd be
able to hear that a lot better on the trolley
of being outside.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Right, absolutely, And that's thanks to a great partnership with
Nutrient So we're grateful for you guys and helping make
that caroling thing possible. But it's our second year of
doing that and our slots are already filled for this year.
We've got a ton of unique groups caroling this year.
And I think the thing that everybody needs to know,
because I get questions like this all the time. Do
(06:25):
we have to be a professional or expert organized group
that that sings for a living or or sings as
a profession. That is not what we're looking for. That's
fine if if you want to sign up and you
are an organized group, that is very good ecceeding. But
we're really looking at looking at this is a fun
holiday fundraising opportunity for groups and organizations in the community.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
And uh, I think we really got that this year.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
We have the Alan East powerlifting team signed up, We've
got the Bath Junior High girls basketball team signed up,
We've got the Temple Christian and volleyball team signed up.
Alanie's SAD program is signed up, a choir group out
of Saint Mary's, So all across the board, we've got
a pretty cool lineup of groups.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And you know what I like about this is that
it's it's kind of like I remember caroling when I
was growing up, where you would just get a bunch
of the kids in the neighborhood and say let's go
ahead and go caroling for through our neighborhood. And usually
we couldn't sing, so that was so this is what
brings back those memories of hearing. I mean, I'm looking
forward to the powerlifters because I would imagine that's going
to be like a you know, knock it out of
(07:32):
the park kind of choir right there.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Absolutely, And one thing that we're going to do now
that the schedule's kind of set, be on the lookout
on the fair social media pages on Facebook Instagram and
TikTok where we'll be actually publicizing that schedule and who's
singing what night because we know that mom and Dad,
Grandma and grandpa are gonna want to go out and
see the kiddos caroling that night. So I think it's
(07:56):
going to be a pretty cool opportunity all the way around.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So it's here six.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
I would imagine that, like anything else, these displays probably
take some maintenance. They probably break down over time, got
to make some repairs or replace them. So you guys
found a unique partnership with Apollo. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yes, so very cool partnership that we just started this year.
Thanks to Keith Horner at Apollo that kind of helped
me get this started, as well as Jamie Buell before
she left. She no longer works there, but she helped
me get it started as well in working with Apollos welding,
fabrication and electrical programs. So what this partnership is is
(08:34):
the welding and fabrication kids came to me with three designs.
I then approved the designs, ordered the materials, they built,
welded and built these displays for us. They then got
transferred from the welding shop over to the electrical shop.
We then placed a light rope led light rope order
(08:55):
for the electrical kids, and the electrical kids were tasked
with wiring these up and making them look like you
look like they will when they drive through the event.
And I've got to see these three displays already and
they are super cool. I will let the cat out
of the bag with at least one of them. The
other two will leave as a surprise. But they built
us a twelve foot tall grinch head this year, and
(09:18):
we don't have the Grinch on our route yet. And
he is very cool.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Oh, that is neat. That's very neat.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, and you talked about maintenance and a progression plan,
and that's what's really cool about this partnership is, yes,
we're paying for the materials and we're also going to
pay as part of Apollo's percentage program for doing a
community project like this, we also pay basically the programs
for their work or percentage of it. But what we're
(09:48):
going to do, since we have three displays coming in,
We're going to take a look at like our three
oldest displays that we have or that are six years old,
and ones that the guys, the maintenance guys have to
work on every year just to get them functioning or
to skim them by. We're simply going to remove them
from the route and replace them.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
With these new displays.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Because that one point one miles I was referring to,
we're quickly running out of electrical infrastructure with our existing route,
and we've already changed it three times in six years.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, so I just think that's when you first told
me about it. I thought, what a great partnership, because
you got the welding kids involved, you got the electrical
electrician kids involved, and so this is this is a
real life projects where they'll be able to drive through
and you know, a couple of years from now, they'll
drive through with all their friends when they're home from
school or whatever, and they'll go, look, I put that together.
I remember building the grinches head and that's a pretty
(10:42):
cool thing.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Absolutely, And that really even the partnership like this goes
back to a lot of what our mission is at
the Fairgrounds. It's promoting youth through agricultural experiences. And I
know Bright Nights isn't necessarily an agricultural experience, but it
is giving these youth a really cool opportunity to exercise
the skills that they're building, the curriculum that their programs
(11:06):
are based around of, but doing it in a fun
way around the holidays and getting exposure to over roughly
twenty five thousand people each and every year that come
through our Bright Nights event.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I didn't prep you ahead of time, so I
don't mean to stump you or anything, but oh, that's what.
But I'm sitting here and I'm going this is really
cool because we're talking about Bright Nights. It's not the fair,
it's something else that goes on at the fair. But
the fair grounds is more than nine days. I mean,
you guys have things going on throughout the year. This
just happens to be a big one. But could you
(11:38):
talk about how busy the fair grounds is off fair
because I know there are a lot of people, I know,
some of them personally, that think you work like nine
or ten days a year.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And then well, when he says personal, he means himself. Yeah,
I was just about to say, you said the fairgrounds
is hopping. Yet each and every day that you call me,
and it's not during the fair, it's sorry, did I
wake you? Like you think I only worked ten days
out of the year anyways. Yes, we have a very
busy schedule even this time of year. Our fairgrounds is
(12:08):
home to one hundred and fifty events in a calendar
year aside from the nine days of the fair, and
that could be something as small as an organization's annual
meeting all the way up to Maxis Trader Days and
water dog races that covers the whole property. Think of
that one hundred and fifty events in a three hundred
and sixty five day calendar year. It is very difficult
(12:29):
to find an open time slot and date on our
calendar to bring in a new event. That's something that
the board tasked me with to try to bring in
new events to generate more revenue. But that's becoming more
increasingly difficult because with these partnerships that we've built up
with these promoters, they're wanting to continue to come back
and have those events with us.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah. I was just thinking we had a big maker
Fest out there where we had sixteen hundred high school
kids from twenty one schools, one hundred and some employers
out at the fair grounds for two or three days.
But then I remember talking to your maintenance staff who
they were talking to us on the last day that Friday,
they had to get everybody out of the buildings as
quickly as they could because there was a wedding setting
up that night for Saturday the very next day. So
(13:13):
it's just amazing how quickly your staff turns the buildings
around and turns the grounds around so that next event
can move in. So I just wanted to have a
chance that we could talk about that that the Fairgrounds
is a busy, busy.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Place, absolutely, and that same Saturday that you're referring to,
we also had a food truck festival on the south
end of the property. So I'm glad that you brought
up the maintenance staff though, because when we talk about
that number of events and how busy we are, I
really need to give kudos where kudos is due to
our maintenance staff and our office staff that just makes
(13:46):
it happen. I mean, it is a team effort when
it comes to pulling off a feat like that and
being a year round business. I mean, we're a nonprofit organization,
but we operate like a business. And the team that
we have out at the Fairgrounds is just appssolutely stellar
and I gotta say thank you to each and every
one of them for the countless hours they put in
to make us one of the top fairs in the
(14:07):
state of Ohio.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So let's get back to bright Night's yeah, real quick.
So where's the money go? I mean, so obviously it's
a fundraiser for the fair. You don't have that many
non fair fair fundraisers. So where do these funds go?
What does this support?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, so a little bit is held back every year
from the so called profits of the event. And when
I say held back, they're held back to roll into
next year's event. That's either to put towards the maintenance
cost of displays that we have go down and or
adding to the event and why it's grown so large
over the last six years. The rest of the funds
(14:45):
that are raised from this event go into a lot
of the capital projects that you've seen us do here.
Over the last really three and a half years especially,
we've been able to.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Accomplish a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So we're really going with the mindset motto of investing
in ourselves but also getting the community to invest into us.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Well. In order to.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Get the community to continue to invest into us, we
need to show them that we're also putting our money
where our mouth is and really creating a better overall
experience for all fair goers that come through our gates
throughout the entire calendar year.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So we have to end with the most important part,
which is again the dates and times for the bright Nights,
the cost and anything else you think they need to
know when they get there, maybe how they come in
off of Harding Highway, those kinds of.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Things they do.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yes, So again, like you said, our starting date is Saturday,
November twenty ninth. Every night that we're open, we're open
from six pm to nine pm. It's ten dollars per
car cash only. By the way, that's something I didn't
touch on. We don't offer cards, so it's cash only
ten dollars per car, thirty dollars per bus, and then
(15:56):
on Sundays it's five dollars per person to ride the
trial through Bright Nights. To find all of our dates
in case you're looking to make it one of the nights,
you can go to Alancofair dot com to find our dates,
and I think that basically covers most of the pertinent
information that people would want to know. You think I
left anything out.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
On November twenty ninth. Is it twenty dollars that they
have a Michigan plate.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I just absolutely okay, I just wanted to clarify that's
on the record.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Troy Elware, thanks again for joining us on ACF four
one one. I love doing these podcasts about the Allen
County Fair, and we'll come back in the spring and
do another one and talk about all the spring stuff
that comes up because you have the fish fry and
all kinds of things going on. I want to think
Alex Wilfara, our engineer from my heart, and and Decker,
our videographer who gets us on YouTube. That's pretty neat.
(16:48):
And this wraps up episode thirty seven. Can't believe it already.
So we'll catch you next time on ACF four one
one
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