Nebraska State Fair 2025

Coolkay and Countyfairgrounds.net - pre fair interviews the Nebraska State Fair 2025 , with Jamie Parr... Exec. Dir. about the 2025 Nebraska State Fair

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is cool kay and County gefferbs dot net
out of Dender. Are you Jamie Potter, the fair manager.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yes, that's correct, Hi Jamie.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
How you doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm doing so well. I'm excited to visit with you.
Thank you so much for calling.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Okay, so tell the listeners first off, when the fair starts,
and then love's talk about parking.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Okay, sounds good. Nebraska State Fair opens on Friday, August
twenty second.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, and as a senior, I always ask about parking first.
That's why that question came up.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Okay, Okay, Yeah, we have a substantial free general public
parking throughout the grounds, much of it's on soft surface.
We do have some paved ADA parking, and then we
also have some just off grounds parking, and then we
do shuttles from two locations here in town, and those

(00:55):
shuttles are also free, so people can park and then
ride a shuttle to and from the fairground.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Okay, So when it's not a handicapped person, is a
particular place you would like me to go?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Anybody with a ADA there is handicapped parking, then all
of our lots. But if somebody wanted paved ADA parking,
We have that through Gate six off of Sauner Park Road.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
All right, so I'm coming in the gates and do
you have a map that you hand people?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah? Absolutely, we have a whole gate book that talks
about the fair, as well as a daily sheet that
really brings to light everything that's happening on the day
you visit.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Oh that's nice. I like that. Okay, Now let's change
direction a little bit. Suppose I'm coming in the fairgrounds
with a bunch of kids under twelve. What would you
suggest I do first?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Like an activity to do first? Yeah? Absolutely, The Nebraska
Building would be a great first stop. There's some indoor
outdoor kind of feel to it. With Nebraska Game and Parks,
they have a lot of outdoor recreational activities. There's also
a raising Nebraska Museum, some barbershop, courts, quartets as well.

(02:10):
But that I would stop first at the Nebraska Building.
It's closest to our main date.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, because you know kids, they get a little antsy
when they go to these things. Yeah. Okay, all right,
what about grounds acts? Do you have grounds entertainment?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Oh? For sure, yes, we have tons of free entertainment.
Once once, everybody, once somebody is through our gates. We
have a number of acts that perform multiple times each day.
We have a touchdown circus show, we have a cowboy
circus show, hypnotist comedian but trilla quist, there's a strolling

(02:54):
fire truck with a cold missing station associated with it,
and then a circus science spectacular. Our biggest probably grounds
attractions this year though, will be the Sea Lion Splash
and a dog stunt show, as well as Oakley the
tree Man. He's kind of a strolling artist. He dresses

(03:16):
up like a tree is on stilts and tends to
surprise some people who might think he actually is a
tree before he moves.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Okay, all right, what about restrooms? Where are they in
your If I'm coming in the mangate, where's the first restroom?

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yep? At that Nebraska building will be your first restroom,
and then just past the Nebraska building if you can
make it past the little park environment there, we have
a welcome center and there's a number of restrooms there.
But we are largely a newer facility campus. Most of
our buildings were built in twenty ten, so we have

(03:51):
ample restrooms, nice and clean, big hot water, cold water,
baby changing table. So we try to accommodate the we can.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
What about fo eat stuff? Do you have Floyds stuff?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah? I hope you come in first weekend to see
the four each livestock. But the four each competitive exhibits
are moving in already. They'll be here all eleven days.
The four each specific livestock are here first weekend of
the state.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
There all right now. One of the other questions that
comes to mind is a mother, what about strolling food vendors? Oh, well,
food vendors on the grounds?

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Okay, yeah, ample food vendors. My goodness. Yeah, we have
about almost sixty independent food vendors, and then our carnival
has another eight or ten food stands as well, so
a great variety of food. We just posted the other
day great post about gluten free food options. I was

(04:48):
even surprised by the extensive list that's available. So we
try to really highlight some of those dietary needs and
make sure that we can help people find something that
will work for them. My mother with kids under twelve,
My daughter is thirteen, so not under twelve.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
What does she think of as the fair?

Speaker 2 (05:10):
She loves it, of course, yeah, she loves the food.
She loves the rides. She loves the animals and she
also likes the shop, so she'll go through the exhibit
building a little bit.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Okay. Is the carnival included with the admission.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
The rides are in addition? You can sure walk through
the carnival and get a full experience by doing that.
But we have daily risk bands available weekdays and weekend,
so each day that the riskbands available for the carnival rides,
the games are course are in addition to the wristband,
but we also have a skytram, so the carnival ride

(05:50):
wristband will also get somebody a ride on our skytrams.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Oh I don't know what a sky tram is? What
is that?

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Oh? Yeah, I bet you do. Maybe just not hurt
of that name for it? Is it gondola rides that
teach you up in the.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Air and goes oh okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds
like fun. Okay. So do you have daily entertainment inside
the buildings? Do you have entertainers performing during the day.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well, we have entertainment all day every day. Not a
lot of it is inside a building. We do have
like our national concerts. That is that where you're going, we'll.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Explain to the explain to the audience what that is.
Because all the stays theares do different things, and that's
why I asked that question, So tell me what that is.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, our national concerts would be like Matthew West and
Josiah Queen. It's a ticketed event, so in addition to
gated mission, you can buy a ticket to the evening
concert or or matin a concert. But that so Matthew
West and Josiah Queen kick us off on Sunday. Righteous
Brothers is our older Nebraskan's Day. That's a matt May show,

(07:00):
always very popular. We have some wellness boosts and activities
that go along with the concert for to celebrate our
older Nebraskans. Okay, all right, and then each day, yeah,
each day we have a different ticketed event. Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
What about your evening performances?

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Okay, kind of kicked off with Matthew West and Josia Queen.
We also have bull riding one night, yes, and we
have bullfighting. We have Figure eight racing, tractor and truck
pull demo Derby and then inside Marshall Tucker Band with

(07:40):
Daryl Worley. Also have Sawyer Brown playing. That'll be a
free concert national level, but free concert for us this
year Theory of a Dead Man and Skillett. We'll be
performing a hard rock show and then look back at
our pop would be forever young. And that'll include Vanilla

(08:03):
Ice and Chris Kirkpatrick and some other great performers in
an on stage.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Okay, all right, and what's your carnival's name?

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Wait? Shows brings our carnival rise and games.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
So what's your favorite part of the fair?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
All of it? Absolutely. The position I've worked the longest
at Nebraska State Fair was with the vendors and the
food concession, so that tends to hold a soft spot
for me. The whole entertainment, and then the agriculture via
livestock kind of newer to me in the last five
years or so, getting a real good exposure to that.

(08:46):
So all in all, it just comes together to be
a wonderful experience for families.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, I know a lot of work goes into these things,
and I've interviewed big events and I've been on both sides.
I understand what you're saying. It's a lot of work.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, yeah, no, it is, but it's very rewarding. It's
definitely worth it.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Okay, all right, so this fair grounds, does it have
things coming up after this fair? And what and what?

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, well we are a little bit unique. Other fares
do something similar, but we have occupancy of the campus
just for sixty days, so somebody else owns the property.
Fauner Park is our landlord. We come in and get
ready to produce an eleven day state Fair, and then
just a couple of weeks after that, we produce a
four day livestock show called Xarban Stock Show. Those are

(09:38):
our two main events for the year that are hosted
by US.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Okay, and then I'm presuming in Nebraska, says fair. I'll
be back again next year, same place.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Oh, absolutely, for sure. We have a little bit later
dates next year. This year where August twenty second through
September first, And if you've been paying attention to the calendar,
next year, Labor Day is not until September seventh, so
we start we start about a week later next year.
We'll have an extra week to get ready. Okay, all right, Well,

(10:08):
I think we've done a fairly good job of going
over everything, and I'll go through it and make sure
that it sounds great, and I'll get it posted and
we'll post it with your listing and on your estate
page and all over the country. Well that sounds wonderful.
Sure do you appreciate the chance to visit with you,
and thank you so much for visiting with me about
Nebraska State chair.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Thank you, Jamie, I've enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Bye bye, Thanks you have a good day.