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November 27, 2024 13 mins
CoolKay and Countyfairgrounds interview The 2024 AZ Livestock Show taking place at the Macicopa County fairgrounds in Phoenix, Arizona. We interview the Executive Director Tyler Grandil about the history of the event and what goes on during the show. They have a 32 state reprenstation at this event which has gone on for years. 
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
County fair Grounds in Cool Okay? Here do I have,
Tyler Grandel Hi. You're the executive director of the Arizona
Livestock Show starting in December twenty seventh.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I believe I am.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Okay, this show goes on for quite a few days,
and you want to give you a little bit of
a brief history about it.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
We've been holding the hosting the Arizona National Livestock Show
since nineteen forty eight here in Phoenix, Arizona started primarily
as a breeding cattle show and then slowly evolved from
there to where it is today, which is primarily a
junior market livestock show, with the bulk of our entries
coming from what I would consider smaller stocks, so sheep

(00:42):
and goats and swine. We do have a significant number
of cattle as well, but we've kind of transitioned to that.
So we run for a total of five days. Even
though the livestock show is primarily just twenty nine through
thirty one, the first couple of days we also add
in some stock dog trials, branch rodeo, and some contests.

(01:04):
So that's us one nut.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Show, okay, And it's at the Arakopa County Fairgrounds.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Right, Yeah, yeah, the Arizona State Fairgrounds.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Right, Okay, and I understand you have people coming from
all over the country to come to this show, so
it's one of the biggest shows in the country, right, Well, yes,
we do.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Have exhibitors coming from all over the country. This year,
we have thirty two states that are represented. Last year
was the same, so we've been hovering in the low thirties.
So we feel very proud of that. I would say
that we're predominantly a Southwest show. If you were to
see a heat map of where our ghibitors come from,
most of them are coming from California, Arizona, and Texas

(01:44):
and then the surrounding states, and then as you start
going east, it's starts to trail off quite a bit.
But I would say that, you know, we've had nationwide
coverage for many years. As far as being one of
the biggest shows, I don't know that I would go
there or actually we're a decent side show, but some
of this there's quite a few shows that are quite
a bit bigger than we are, but we definitely have

(02:06):
some decent representation across the country.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Okay, So what's opening daylight?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
So the first day, it would be one of our
lighter days. We start off kind of slow. While we're
moving in the livestock exhibitors. We have our stock dog trials,
which are consists of cattle and sheep, and so we're
excited about that, and then the next day we'll open
it up with continuing to move in exhibitors. It takes
us a couple of days for the livestock folks to

(02:33):
get in, and so while we're doing that, we continue
with our stock dog trials. We'll start a youth ranch
rodeo on that day, and then we move into the
livestock show itself on the twenty ninth, along with the
ranch rodeo, and then it just really really hits full
steam then and we'll go from bell to bell on

(02:54):
the twenty ninth through the thirty first, and we'll wrap
up everything on the thirty first, usually late afternoon, six
six o'clock evening.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Hey, you're not open for New Year's Eve?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
No, We've found most of our folks would rather be
on the road trying to get home, so we appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
All right, you have a cowboy classic Western show. We do.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
So we have a really extensive relationship long standing relationship
with a local foundation here who supports and is very
vested in Western art. And so for many years now
we have hosted an art show and it's had a
variety of forums throughout the year. Throughout the years. What
we do now is we partner up with a foundation

(03:38):
called the Art of the Cowgirl, and they focus on
up and coming female artists and give them the opportunity
for fellowships and internships. And then what we do is
we connect with them and we tap into some of
their graduated fellows and commission them to do an art
piece for us, which we then sell. And is it

(04:00):
the funds to fund our scholarship program?

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Okay? All right? And so basically say, like opening day,
where are the hours?

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Pretty much each day every day, I would say the
hours are eight thirty to five. You come down to
the fairgrounds anytime during during that time, there's gonna be
something going on for you.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Okay. What's the parking situation like for people who don't
know the fairground?

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Sure? So extensive parking in both the South Lot and
the North Lot. Parking is free as well as admission.
Admission is free as well, so we're open to the public.
Every day, and we really really do enjoy having folks
from the public the local area come in and watch
what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
What about handicapped stuff, I mean, is it easy for
a handicamp person to get around it? Sure is.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, we have designated handicapped parking right near the front gate,
and then if that gets full, which I've never seen
it get full, but if it does, we have more
designated parking that in the north lock than they commuteize.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
All right, what about a schedule as people come into
the into the fairgrounds? Do you have a schedule printed?
Sure we do. We have.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
It's both online and printed, so if you're to go
to our website, which is easy National dot org, you'll
be able to find schedule there. We also have a
small brochure version that we hand out to everyone that
comes through the gate.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Okay, yeah, because a lot of people really aren't that
computer savvy anymore. You know, it's kind of hard these days. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
What about restroom facilities?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Sure, we have restrooms in every every building on the fairgrounds,
and we have a we have a crew that goes
through every hour on the hour to make sure they're clean.
I know, it's so priority for a lot of folks,
and we certainly try to make sure that that that
standard is maintained.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
And they're handicapped accessible.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
I would presume yes, ma'am, they are.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Okay, all right, what about now, I'm going to ask
you about food? Is there food around?

Speaker 2 (05:59):
There is? Now, We're we're not as extensive as you
might find it account here stay fair, but we we
do have we have nine different food vendors here and
we have a nice variety of food for folks that
still want to have that kind of fair food taste.
So yeah, that's definitely something that's priority for us.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Okay. So a good part of the kinds of things
that you're doing involves dogs. What do you what do
you do for the dogs?

Speaker 2 (06:24):
So we run stock dog trials and so the cattle
dogs and sheep dogs that we have, what they'll do
is they will then their dog with their handler will
be put into an arena with either cattle or sheep
and they'll they've given the objective of hurting those animals
through an obstacle course for time, and so they're judged
on the time it takes and wasn't not they're able

(06:46):
to get all the all the livestocking there through the
through each obstacle, and so it's it's very competitive and
very impressive to see the relationship that these that these
dogs have with their handlers and how they're able to
work the livestock.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
So what day is that?

Speaker 2 (07:03):
That's twenty seventh.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
And twenty eight Okay, all right, So I mean how
long does that usually ask? Once?

Speaker 2 (07:09):
It starts pretty much all day? So the first day
will be will be a longer day because well we'll
start them at nine thirty and we'll go till about
about four. The next day we'll be closer to eight
thirty to i'd say one, because they finish up a
little early and do the finals. But it's still really

(07:30):
a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
So you have winners, right, we do.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah, that's the primary objective of the show is to
determine winner, no matter what the category is. And so
we'll have, you know, the main focus of course is
our livestock show, and so we'll have about a thousand
pigs here, a little over one thousand sheep, little over
one thousand goats, and about five hundred headed cattle, and
all of them are buying for the opportunity to be

(07:55):
named Grand champion. So that's that's really why we're in existence.
But the same holds true with our stock dog competition
or ranch rodeo. Again we're going after champions there. We
even have some contests where we had young people that
come in from all over and include last year we
had a team from Hawaii that flew in to be
a part of the livestock judging contest that we put

(08:16):
in and the purpose of that is to allow these
young people the opportunity to demonstrate their skill in selecting
and evaluating lives talk and then presenting their justification to
an expert, a professional judge, and so we host that
as well. But again it's all about being named champion,
which is what everyone wants.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
So how long has it been executive's director.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
I've been here since twenty sixteen, so I've really enjoyed
my Yeah, so what really druged my time here? I
showed here as a kid. Actually my brother participated as
one of my earliest memories was watch my brother catch
a calf a range steer then and was able to
show that. Well, we don't do that program anymore, but

(09:01):
it was a very memorable experience, but it got in
my blood. And when the opportunity arose to come here,
I jumped at it. And just I've really enjoyed the
opportunity to to really be a part of the industry.
You know, folks that that participate in this industry, it's
it's a way that they've chosen to raise their kids.
It's a it's a great way to teach responsibility and

(09:23):
hard work and a lot of the ethics and values
that we that we love to see in our young
people are taught in this very industry. And I just
I really wanted to be a part of that.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Okay, So do you have kids.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
I do. I have four children.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Do they participate?

Speaker 2 (09:40):
You know, they don't. Actually, we raise some steers in
my house and so they participate with chores there. But
my wife is a professional musician, and so they they
all really took music, and the girls took to dance,
and and so that that's the road they chose, and
I fully support that. And several all of them be

(10:00):
working for me at the show, so they're familiar with
livestock shows. Just don't they just don't show themselves.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Hey, darling, I've been here since nineteen ninety eight. I
got your beat, Yes, you do, and I have interviewed
several things that go on at that fair grouns. I
know that there's a lot of things that go on
at the fair grounds during the year.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Sure, yeah, yeah. Right before this is a gun show
and right after this is a home show. So it's
kind of a hop in place this time of year.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Okay, so you actually sell their livestock show and sale.
They can sell the livestock too.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
They do some of them. So we'll have we'll sell guilts,
which of course you know is a female pig that
hasn't had a litter yet. Well, we'll have a big
guilt sale. We also have a commercial cattle sale, so
we'll sell replacement heifers and bulls and to ranchers here
in Arizona. So those are two big sales. We'll also
sell some ag mechanics projects. I didn't really mention that before,

(10:59):
but we also have an agg mechanics show and silent
auction and so mostly agriculture education programs f FAY chapters.
They'll have shops a lot of times, and they'll teach
the kids how to weld and create things, and so
we've provided a venue for them to bring those things
to uh, to the show and to sell them to
people who are interested. So those are the three three

(11:22):
sales that we'll have.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Okay, so what do you I'm kind of curious now
if you do this, uh once a year, what the
hell do you do?

Speaker 2 (11:31):
That's a great question. We get that question a lot. Actually,
there's a there's two full time staff here, me and
then the gall and it takes us a lot longer
than you might expect to set everything up. In addition
to to this show, though, we also put on a
quarter horse show in mid December, so that takes a
decent amount of our time as well. That's not here,
that's at West World. So in addition to that, there's

(11:54):
you know, there's the ramp up and then there's the
cool down after the show. We uh, you know, we're
always on top of the latest trends in the industries,
so rules creation and monitoring is a big part of it.
We run a scholarship program here at the show, so
good portion of our funds go towards scholarships, so we
have to implement that. So we're actually more busier than

(12:16):
you might think we might be, mostly because we're just
such a small staff.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
I understand that believe me.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Okay, well, I certainly enjoyed this. And there is an
admission fee to get into this thing.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Right, there's not free admission, free parking.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Oh oh that's cool. All right, that makes a difference. Yeah,
do you have any idea what your attendance is?

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah. Throughout the week, I think we will see anywhere
from twelve to fifteen thousand people here, which you know
is a decent size for a non fare, you know,
because you don't have any rides or anything. That's I
think it's a decent amount.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Okay, okay, Well, I've enjoyed talking too. We'll get this
up and get it posted around the country and hopefully
will help you get some traffic.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Great, thank you, man, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Thank you. Bye bye
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