OHStateFair2025

CoolKay and Countyfairgrounds.net interviews Jess West, PR and Marketibg Director of the Ohio State Fair 2025 about what is going on at the fair this year. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi County Fairgrounds and cool. Okay, here do I have
just west? Yeah, you're the PR and marketing director for
the Ohio State Fair that's coming up very soon, right
I am? Okay? All right, this is a pretty big fair.
Do you know what last year's Do you know what
your tenancy is approximately?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Let me pull that up for you. It's over nine
hundred and fifty thousand.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Okay, that's good, that's good. All right, okay, all right.
The first first thing I have as a question, and
this is a pretty big fairgrounds and you're in Columbus,
how what's the parking lot? And what could you make
some suggestions about how to park?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Absolutely so, parking at the Ohio State Fair is ten
dollars and we have main parking lots sponsored by O'Reilly
Auto Parts and those are just north of our entrance gates.
So come a park on fight. We also have a
free parking ride opportunity and visitors can learn more about
that on our website. To park at a local park

(01:00):
our school Columbus State and ride a free shuttle to
one of our other gates to enter the fair. All right,
what if I'm a handicapped old senior person, what would
you suggest I parked?

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yet?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
We also have accessible parking in those main O'Reilly Auto
Parks parking lots.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
And our gate entrance. Wise, when people come into the gata,
they handed a map SRENA where they're going.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
They're not handed a map at the entrance gates, but
we do have printed maps at our Guest Information Services
booths located around the grounds. They can pick up a
printed map, or they can get our map on the
Ohio State Fair app, so we always encourage people to
download that before they get to the fair. It has
a food finder in it, it has selfie spots in there,

(01:46):
it has a shopping finder, but it also has our
map so that far goers can easily navigate around the grounds.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Okay, what if I'm a mother with a bunch of
little kids under twelve? What would you suggest I do? First?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Absolutely so, coming in that main entrance date up on
the north that I've talked about a couple of times,
you're gonna go right over to the right to the
Allows Youth Exploration Space presented by the Ohio and Soybean Council.
There is so much for kids to do in there,
and kids of all ages too, So there's different activities
like deep fried masks. There's a tiny town play area

(02:20):
in there. You can participate in archery with Girl Scouts
or bouldering in Gaga ball with Scouting America. In there,
there's different science to learn about with KOSAI. We also
have different colleges from around the state coming in each
day with Ohio Department of Higher Education and Workforce, so

(02:40):
there's tons to do in there. There's also four H
in that building, so not only can you learn more
about joining for each and how to become a part
of that great organization, but there's also four H judging
that happens in there, so you can see more about
what four age is all about and the different kind
of non livestock competitions that you can compete in with

(03:02):
four Age.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Okay, one of the other questions as a mother with
a bunch of kids under twelve, where are the restrooms?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Absolutely so if there are restrooms in that Lauchius Exploration space.
If you're coming in the main gate, which is about
where eighty percent of our faregoers enter the ground, if
you look immediately to your left upon entering, there's a
standalone restroom building over to the left, So if you
have to run to the restroom before you can even
see anything. That's the perfect place to go. If you're

(03:32):
in the Laoschius Exploration Face, you need to use the
restroom and freshrooms there. If you come in and you
pass both of those buildings, then you say, oh my gosh,
I forgot to use the restroom. Hop over into the
kask Hall building that has plenty of reshrooms in it,
and then you can also pop over there and see
the creative arts exhibits featuring all kinds of great art.

(03:54):
There's quills, there's cooking and banking over there, there's fashion arts,
there's miniature art. There's also youth arts that happens in there,
and our Ohio State Fair History exhibit, as well as
some different demonstrations and sporting competition. So that's the building
to go. Use the restaurmant, but also get sucked into
and see all the great things that are happening in there.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
A lot of things that go on at these sharegrounds
and different shares is they have a lot of strolling entertainers.
Do you have any strolling entertainers? Imagine you do. We do.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
We absolutely have strolling entertainers. So we have a variety
of different stages on the ground. So we have our
main Street stage, we have our Ohio Lottery Gazebo stage,
we have the Natural Resources Park Amphitheater. But new this year,
we have a chainsaw carving location. So stop by the
chain chainsaw carver and see all of you know, the

(04:42):
wood chips flying around the chainsaw on and see a
piece of art created out of, you know, some timber
down there. We also have a new Cincinnati Circus aerial entertainment,
So that's going to be a really fun local circus
provider coming out and doing some really amazing aerial stunts
and certainly something that I don't want to try my

(05:03):
hand at. I don't know about you, cool kay, but
I think I will stay on the ground. But then
walking around the grounds, we also have we have giant
skilt walkers, so the amazing giants. We also have a
variety of other strolling entertainment. I don't want to don't
want to ruin the surprise of seeing some pop up
performances that we have different people strolling through the ground

(05:24):
on some of those stages that I mentioned. We have
cup Guy on the gazebo stage. We have great Lake
timber shows, the Lumberjack shows that happen at that Natural
Resources Park Amphitheater. We have a circusmand we have casual
which is a fan favorite. We have a lot of
different musical artists. A really fun stage that we have

(05:46):
is down in the Taste of Ohio Pavilion and beer Garden.
On the Taste of Ohio stage, there's live music that
happens every day starting at two PM, so that's more
acoustic type music. And then every evening starting at six DM,
there's a live DJA down there. So you know, stop
down there and try some of the food from Ohio
agricultural commodities located in that pavilion, try some Ohio beer

(06:09):
and wine, and then stick around for an acoustic show
or maybe a DJ in the evening.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Okay, well, free entertainment is what my first concern would be,
especially with a bunch of little kids. So you know,
are these things you're talking about free or they paid entertainment.
All of the.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Things we've just talked about are in flooded with admissions.
So you buy your ticket and then that's you that's
your key to get all of this great entertainment.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Okay, yeah, that's good mothers would like to know these
things absolutely, Okay, all right, So what about strolling food vendors.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
So we have a lot of food vendors here. We
have over one hundred and thirty food vendor locations on
the grounds, and we have some people that have been
here for years and years and years, like like Schmidt's
Sausage House has been are one of our longest running
vendors at the Ohio State There is something exciting that
they have. We've been partnering for the past few years

(07:06):
for a exclusive Ohio State Fair cream puff, and so
they announced their cream puff lavor this year. It's gonna
be caramel apple. So I'm very excited to try that.
But we also have a variety of other new food
around the ground as well as traditional favorites that everyone loves.
You can't skip out on those funnel cakes and corn

(07:26):
dogs and all of the good other fair food. But
some new and exciting things that we have in addition
to the caramel apple cream puff are things like ghost
Pepper hot fudge. There's also gluten free mini donuts that
are coming, Jullapeno chen or corn dog. We also have
some moonshine chicken on a stick and a sausage small

(07:48):
skewer on a stick, so exactly what it sounds like.
Sausage kind of in a small type variety with you know,
marshmallow and graham cracker and chocolate. We alsoally have smack burgers,
a strawberry kettle port, and a variety of other exciting
new foods.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Okay, what's your favorite fair food? Oh?

Speaker 2 (08:09):
I don't know if I could pick just one, but
especially on these summer days, I'm a big fan of
ice cream.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yep, that sounds good to me too. Yeah, good, Okay.
So paid for entertainment that goes on during the fair
during the day or is there anything like that?

Speaker 2 (08:29):
We do have a variety of paid shows, so those
happened in the evening and the w coll Celeste Center,
and we have different paid concerts. So we have everything
from kidspop to foreigner to some country with Warren Zyders
and then Trace Adkins. We have Ta Pain, We have
Lee and Morgan for our comedy show As and R

(08:51):
is going to be here. We have Morris Day in
the time touring wells. So we have a variety of
paid entertainment happening in the les Center. Something else new
that's happening this year is that we're having a rodeo
night so with Ruffy Rodeo Productions on Saturday, August second,
in our ag Pro Company's tast Coliseum. We're having a rodeo.

(09:13):
So those tickets are pretty affordable eighteen dollars and it
includes admission and come see a full blown, full production rodeo.
We're really excited to offer that this year.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, that's different for you guys. I haven't seen that.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
It's different.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, but I have seen the butter coow. So where's
the buttercow.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
The buttercow is in the same building that the Buttercow
has been named for years and years and coolkay, don't
ask me what the theme is. I don't know. It's
one of our best kept secrets. So we will all
find out together the day before the fair opens. Okay,
Smokey Bear, Smokey Bear, we've still gotten Go over to
Natural Resources Park and get greeted by name by Smokey Bear,

(09:56):
and stay over Natural Resources Park and check out all
of the great things that they have over there. There's kayaking,
there's youth fishing, there's a butterfly house, there's a prairie
with native Ohio plants. There's a discovery pavilion with all
kinds of fun things about nature and Ohio and Ohio parks,
and then they're gonna learn a little bit more about
sustainability in Ohio as well.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
And here's something else I haven't seen before. The uv
M a animal care center. Meet baby animals.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
Oh, the Obna Animal Care Center. Absolutely, you know, this
morning I saw some baby animals that are going in
animal care center. There are baby ducks in our office today.
So those baby ducks are going to be having a
whole bunch of fun during the fairs. They're going up
and down a custom built duck slide. So we're really
excited to see that. But this is a place where

(10:47):
you can, you know, meet baby animals and their moms
and really learn about how to how these animals are
cared for. So there's pigs and piglets in there, there's goats,
there's ducks, you know, a variety of different animals and
so it's both really fun for people of all ages
but also really educational to learn about how these animals

(11:08):
are cared for and you know, how how to give
them the best life possible.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Do you guys have accounival. We do.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
We have a midway with Cali Amusements.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Okay, is that included in the admission or the is
that extra?

Speaker 2 (11:24):
No, that's separate. So our midway you can purchase ride
credits or you can purchase a ride all day with spand.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
All right, So what time during the date is the
fair clones generally?

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, great question. So the fair is open a little
bit earlier on the weekends than it is on weekdays.
So on weekdays because we're starting on a Wednesday, so
we'll start it there. The fair and or the fair
gate hours are ten am to nine pm, and then
on Saturdays and Sundays it's nine am to nine pm.

(11:58):
Except for that last Sunday day on August third. Really
all of the admission gates and all of the activities
you know, start closing around six pm.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
And your evening entertainment it's separate. They have to pay
for that right in the celest Center. Yes, those are
ticketed concerts. Okay. Well, I think that we have fairly
well pretty much covered everything. Is there anything else that
you want to add about this year? Sair.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
We're really excited for the twenty twenty five Ohio State Fair.
We have some construction going on because we're in the
midst of an extra twenty fifty construction project. So we
have a couple areas of construction happening, but they're well
contained and we have a lot of you know, great
sign into and informational informational areas to learn more about

(12:46):
what's going to be in those buildings and what's to
look forward to happening on the grounds next.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Year as well. Okay, speaking happening on the grounds. Look
comes after the Ohio State Fair this year.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, great question. Right after the Ohio State Fair, we
get right back into some other events. So we have
the India Festival happening. Later in August, we have the
Great Lakes Great Main All Brieve Cat Show happening, and
then we jump right into September with the Central Ohio
Home and Garden Show, which is a really popular show

(13:17):
that goes on for several days. And then come October
or you know, September into October, we have the quarter
Horse Congress, so we're really looking forward to that as well.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Okay, well, I've fairly enjoyed talking to you. You've answered
a lot of questions. I'm sure our viewers will like
listening to this, it's you know, when you go to
an event like this is always nice to know a
lot of these things before going on.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Absolutely yeah, well, thanks so much for the invitation.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
I appreciate it. Thank you, jes Bye bye, have a
good day. Bye bye.