Ohio State Fair 2023

Countyfairgrounds and CoolKay interview Jessica West , Public Relations Officier of the Ohio State Fair about the upcoming fair for 2023. We discuss parking, senior stuff, stuff for kids to do, fair food, and exhibit buildings. Also we talk about the fair food and whats new there this year. Then we discuss evening entertainment and the carnival. Not to be left out we talk about what is coming up after the fair at the fairgrounds this year. Check out the Ohio State Fair 2023

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Hi, I'm Karen from County Fairgrounds, USA, County Fairgrounds, Dott Welcome
to today's podcast. Good morning,This is cool Kay from County fair Grounds,
and I believe I have Jessica West, public relations officer of the Ohio
State Fair. I'm alying with me. Yes, that's correct, all right,
give me the dates in location ofthe fair for the nationwide audience.

(00:31):
Yeah, absolutely so. The OhioState Fair this year is July twenty sixth
through August sixth, and we arelocated just north of the city of Columbus,
which is the capital of Ohio,off of High seventy one in our
address of seven to one seven Eastseventeenth Avenue in Columbus. Okay, how

(00:51):
many years is this fair been running? Do you know? This is the
one hundred and sixty eighth Ohio StateFair. Wow? Okay. One of
the things I like to ask isa senior. One of the first important
things is how's the parking? Parkingis great? We have free parking in
our main lots meal OHI in theO'Reilly Auto Parks parking lots, so we

(01:15):
have free parking, and then wealso have free shuttles as well, so
when you park you can get outof your car, secure all your items,
get on a parking shuttle that willdrop you off right in our main
gate, the Cardinal Gate, whereabouteighty percent of our visitors come in.
And it's a super easy way foryou to park your car, enjoy a
little ride to get into the fair. Um, if you don't want to

(01:37):
walk, save your steps for whenyou get inside and then come into the
main gate. Okay, and doyou have is it easy for handicap people
to get in? Yes, wehave lots of accessible parking as well.
Okay, all right, so I'mcoming in the gate. I've got a
whole way to kids under twelve.What do I do first? Yeah?

(01:57):
Absolutely, Well, if you're comingin the Maiden gate, the Cardinal Gate
that I just referenced before, you'regoing to look to your right and you're
going to see the Loushy Youth ExplorationSpace person and by Intel and that building
is chopped full of activities for children. As soon as you come in,
you're going to notice that hanging fromthe ceiling, we've got some different lights
and we've got planets in there.There's a giant COSI exhibit that's in there.

(02:23):
There's a Space theme throughout the entirebuilding, so me walking you can
grab a passport, a Space themedpassport, and visit all the stops along
the way through the building and youknow, get your passport stamped, and
then before you eggit, after I'msure we're spending a couple of hours in
there, you can turn your passportin for a free prize. So after

(02:44):
you've learned all about space, youvisited the tinytown area where we've got cozy
coupes and a whole bunch of otherthings. You visited Boy Scouts and Girl
Scouts and the intel booths, youcan you turn your passport back in and
eggs at that building. And rightthere on the lawn we've got a brand
new Toucher truck exhibit. So thereare going to be some vehicles from throughout

(03:06):
the state and some machinery right thereon the lawn, you know, for
kids to to look out, learna little bit more about and obviously kick
some photos with okay, and alot of restroom facilities around that area,
yes there are, so you canuse the restaurants in that same building in
the Lawshi Youth Exploration Space, orif you're not interested in visiting the lawsh

(03:28):
Youth Exploration Space. Maybe you don'thave the kids with you that day.
As soon as you walk in themain gate right to the left, the
first thing you'll see as the restroom, just to start your day off right,
and they're handicap accessible. We haveplenty of handicap accessible restrooms throughout the
grounds. And actually we have anaccessibility guide that can be found on our

(03:49):
website or also picked up during yourvisit to the Ohio State Fair that identifies
all of the accessible restrooms and plentyof other accessibility resources throughout the grounds.
So what other kind of exhibit buildingsare in the area besides the ones of
the kids. Yeah. Absolutely,Again, if you walk a little bit
down further, you're going to seeKasick Hall on the left hand side,

(04:11):
and that features are creative and usearts exhibits, and so that's a giant
hall, sealed fool with all kindsof different projects. You're going to see
cooking and baking in there. You'regoing to see quilts, you're going to
see photography, you're gonna see allkinds of different arts and crafts and great
recipes and all kinds of things.And that exhibit we also have sporting events

(04:33):
throughout the hair in that building aswell, so cheerleading and boxing and batons
and all kinds of different stuff aswell. Traveling a little bit further down,
if you're following the skygliders that goesstraight through the middle of the grounds,
are going to see plenty of boothsthroughout the fair. Food booths,

(04:53):
so if can you just stop offthe snack those will meet you, you
know, writers you come in thegates and then as you continue to lockdown,
you're going to cross seventeenth Avenue.You're going to see plenty of livestock
facilities and we actually have a brandnew move you guided tour this year,
So every hour on the hour betweenten am and six pm, there's going

(05:14):
to be a guided tour of thelivestock facility. So if you are someone
who does not know a lot aboutIsisi culture in Ohio or the livestock that
that the Ohio State Fair, thesetours are definitely for you. They're very
educational, really fun and interactive,and we'll tell you a little bit more
about you know, our great rootsof as a culture here in Ohio.
Okay, the Ohio State Fair hasum a butter sculpture, saying that I

(05:38):
don't see it a lot of thestate fears. I guess it's been going
on there for a long time.What building is it in and what's the
same this year? Yeah? Absolutely, So we're super fortunate to have our
partner, the American Dairy Association Mideast, who puts from the buttercat each year,
and that's that's in the Dairy ProductsBuilding here at the Ohio State Fair.

(05:58):
And actually the theme this year hasnot been released. That's one of
the best cut of secrets at theOhio State Fair every year. I don't
even know the team until it's unveiledthe day before the fair opens, but
I will tell you that last year, in twenty twenty two, we had
the largest sculpture that we've had todate, and so that that cooler is
kept out of forty six degree temperaturethroughout the duration of the fair and while

(06:24):
the sculptings going on. And lastyear there were two thousand, five hundred
and thirty pounds of butter used forthat sculpture. Wow. Wow, that's
a lot of butter in tess It'sa lot of butter, and all of
that butter is expired, unusable butter. So we're fortunate that Ada Mid East,

(06:45):
you know, is able to securethat butter. You know that can't
be fuled and grocery stores can't gocan't be full to the public to use
that butter for all of the sculpting. Yeah, I wouldn't want to have
to clean that up after the fairis over. Okay, all right,
So food vendors, what's what's localand on the ground and yeah, old
and new. We've got a lotof different food vendors. So actually,

(07:09):
our oldest state vendor is Schmidts andthey've been here for more than one hundred
years on the grounds and they're agreat partner for us. And actually it's
funny they're our oldest vendor, butthey have something new this year. So
Schmitz is famous in Ohio and especiallyin the Columbus area for their delicious cream
puffs. So you can go toa restaurant, you can get delicious cream

(07:30):
puffs here at the fair every year. But something new that they're doing this
year is an exclusive Ohio State Faircream puff and it's a lemon shake up
flavored cream puff, so you know, filled with some nice sweet and part
lemon and custard in the middle,so I will definitely be trying some of
those. This year. We havemore than one hundred and forty five food

(07:53):
booths located throughout the fair, andthree quarters or more of those vendors are
from Ohio, so we're really proudof that. We're really proud of all
of our Ohio vendors, and youknow, love to just see so many
local people participating in affair. Okay, what other kinds of grounds acts do
you have? Yeah, we've gotseveral different grounds acts. So we have

(08:16):
several free entertainment stages, so ourmain street stage, our gazebo stage,
our emphitheater in the Natural Resources Park, and then this year we added a
new entertainment area called Entertainment Palim,so we have free live music from local
musicians and beyond we have oh thatis good, Say this sounds really neat.

(08:39):
Yeah, we have lots of localmusic, which is great. We
also have some new entertainers this year. We have the Reflector and Sparkle and
so it's these people dressed up completelyin mirrors and so they look really cool
and they do some performances and theycall themselves, you know, human mirror

(09:00):
balls, that's what they look like. Who. We have another new acrobatic
kind of circus stunt show called TheFarmer's Daughter. She'll be joining us this
year the Major League Circus Show.That's you know, a great tribe tribute
to baseball and several other things.One of our performers that will be joining

(09:22):
us again this year's Lady Houdinium,and she's an escape artist and so she
doesn't great performances twice a day atthe Ohio State Fair. And then another
performer who will be joining her thisyear at that same stage is the Strong
and Amazing Aerial Stunt Show and soshe is newer to the fair industry and
brand new to the Ohio State Fairwhen we're really excited to have her up

(09:43):
this year as well. Okay,what's the carnival? What's the charval?
Like? The carnival is tally amusementand we're super fortunate to have our partnership
with Callie. We have approximately seventyrides at the fair this year, and
those are our split was just acouple more in our Mountain to Midway than

(10:03):
in kitty Land. And we've gotyou know, the favorite classics. We've
got the Giant Wheel. We've gotthe fast Tracks slide. We have several
other um, you know, excitingroller coasters. We've got haunted houses.
I mean, you name it,we've got to ride for it. I'm
sure. Okay, all right,that brings me. That's a lost sounds

(10:24):
like a lot to do with that. We have to cover the evening entertainment.
What did you get in the evening? Yeah, sure, So we
have paid concerts each night of thefair. Say for the last day on
August sixth, we do not havea paid concert, but each evening of
the fair we have a paid concert, starting with Kidspop on July twenty sixth

(10:45):
on opening day, and then youknow, kind of running through the rest
of the fair. We have somecountry entertainment provided by you know, Clint
Black with special guest at my AnneRoberts as well as Tyler Hubbard of Florida
Georgia Line. And he'll be joinedby Matt Stell. So those would be
some great country entertainment. We haveThird Eye Blind. We have Teeth Sweat

(11:05):
with special guest genuine. We haveJeff Dunham. We always have a comedy
entertainment shows. So Jeff Dunham willbe joining us again this year, Lindsay
Sterling, who previously was you know, a star on TV on America's Got
Talent. She's a great performer andviolinist. She'll be joining us, and

(11:30):
then we've got a few other entertainersthroughout the night. But it's really great
if you purchase a ticket to oneof our paid concerts and these shows in
the wcol So lest Center, whichis a ten thousand sea air conditioned facility,
that also covers your cost of admission. So if you purchase that ticket
before you come to the fair,that also gets you into the fair to

(11:50):
spend the whole day here and thenend your evening with a concerts. Okay,
but can I purchase cancer tickets tothe gate two Fila you can also
which just called their tickets when youwere all the ground. Absolutely okay,
all right, Well I think we'vecovered a lot. Is there's something that
I've missed? Oh goodness, Um, we have plenty of things going on

(12:11):
for people of all ages. Um. You know, we're really proud of
our use here in Ohio. Butall the way up to Senior Day,
Um, you know, we lovehaving our seniors out on Senior Day,
which is always Tuesday. So Tuesday, August first the year, we have
plenty of um, great events goingon for seniors that day. Seniors actually

(12:33):
getting free to the Ohio State Fairon Senior Day, UM, which is
really exciting. So you know,they come in by the busloads and that's
great. There's also a free SeniorDay concert UM that day which is a
Beatles tribute this year. UM.So you know, from from anyone,
you know, from from infants ofthe seniors. We we love m all
of our fairgoers. We love tosee everyone out and we definitely have something

(12:56):
that'll fit everyone's liking. Do youhappen to know last year's attendance was kind
of okay? So attendance in twentytwenty at the twenty twenty two Ohio State
Fair was almost eight hundred and eightyseven thousand people. Yeah, I think
it's one of the bigger fairs inthe country, isn't now it is one

(13:18):
of the larger affairs. Yes,So the Ohio State Fair has other things
going out at Death Stairgrounds during theyear. Can you give me an idea
what's coming up next? Yeah?Absolutely, so as soon as the fair
concludes, will be wrapping right upand going into the next thing, so
on the Ohio explos Undergrounds. Followingthe fair will have a few exciting events,

(13:41):
but you know, a couple ofbig note will be the Columbus Toy
and Game show happening you know inlate August. After that, in early
September, we have Columbus October first, and then following that, you know,
towards the end of September a fewevents in between, of course will
have our month long quarter Horse Congressjoin us. So we have plenty events

(14:05):
going on all throughout the year andthose are just to name a few.
We have a few other you know, live Fox shows in between there,
and we are definitely busy all yearround. Now I know a lot of
this stuff is online, but beingan old senior type person, I mean,
when you check in, do theygive you like a map of the
fair grounds and a list of activities. We have a daily schedule for every

(14:28):
single day at the Ohio State Fairs. So when you come into the gates,
you can stop at an information booth, you can talk for one of
the buildings to get a daily schedulewith a full list of events for that
day, and then if you openit up farther there is a map that
shows you everything on the ground.Okay, that sounds really good. It
sounds like a lot of fun,and I hope you have a terrific fair

(14:50):
and I thoroughly enjoy talking to you. Well, thank you so much.
We really appreciate it. Have agreat day YouTube. Bye bye, all
right, bye bye.