April 20, 2025 • 12 mins
Coolkay and Countyfairgrounds.net inteview Colleen Director of this years Verde Valley Fair in Cottonwood, Arizona comping up shortly. We talk about parking and restorooms and whats on the grounds and not to be messed and we talk fair food and what comes up after the fair
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is cool, kay and County Fairgrounds. Do I
have Colleen of the Verdi Valley Fair rounds? All? Yes,
you do, Hi Colleen? Are you the manager?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I am the director? Correct?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Okay? All right, all right, So the very Valley Fair
is coming up in Cattonwood, Arizona. What are the dates?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
April thirtieth through May fourth, twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Okay, so what is your approximate attendance? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Between the five days between free tickets, exhibitors, vendors, we
run about twenty four nine hundred, so we say twenty five.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
That's cool. That's cool. All right. Now. One of the
first questions that I have as a senior is how
is the parking terrible? But that's always what happens.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We are in our retirement community, so there are a
lot of needs, is how I'm going to say that
for handicapped parking. So we have a lot of designated
parking and we make more for fair But unfortunately, I
think I could do my entire parking lot and probably
(01:06):
not accommodate all of the handicapped parking that comes to
our fare.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, I hear you. Life is a challenge.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It is. And then you work at a fair ground,
so you know, roll with it.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, okay, all right? So what is the address and
where is the parking lot?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Okay? So the address is eight hundred East Cherry Street
in Cottonwent, Arizona.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
And the parking lot is the first thing you come to.
It's how you get to our fair.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
All right. So do you have any like when seniors
come to the gates, are there anything to help them?
I mean, do you have a map of the ground.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
We do not, because when you come into our fair,
I require you to go to our fair first, and
then you can go to the carnival in the food
area if you want to. So when you come in,
you are right in the middle of our exhibits, our
livestock and all that stuff, and then you can walk
over to the carnival and food area.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Okay, all right. So also I'm going to ask you
when you come in the front gate, do you have
like one front gate?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
One front gate? Correct?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Okay? All right? So are there restrooms nearby?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yes? When you first come in, that's one of the
first things you come You purchase your ticket, you go
through security, and you're passing on. I'm going to say
the north end of the steerbarn. And right when you
get to the end of the steerbarn, I think that's
sixty feet wide is the restrooms. So right inside the
gate is the first set of restrooms.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Okay, and then you know, the next thing I'm going
to ask is do we have grounds? X?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yes, we do. Do you want to know what they are?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Are you excited now? Are we doing it now? Or
do you want to do it in a minute?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Oh, go ahead, tell me what you got.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
We got Slim and Curly, the Fables of the West.
I don't know if you've heard of them. They are
two gentlemen that dress up as horses and they tell
jokes and they are very, very very popular. I should
keep them every year, but I don't. I try and
mix them up. But anyway, the Fables of the West
(03:23):
are coming. Slim and Curly. Steve's fun balloons, who's a
balloon artist, and that he strolls all around and takes
care of that. We have Sonoran Reptiles, which is open
all the hours that the fairs are open and has
all different kinds of Sonoran desert reptiles, snakes, tortoises, that
sort of thing that you get to go and look
at and some things you get to pat obviously not
(03:44):
the rattlesnakes and HeLa monsters, but other things. We have
Play with Giants, Playing with Giants, which is also like
the Sonoran Reptiles, open the entire time that you're here
so that you can go in, get out of the
sun and just cool off. It's in our our former
art building, but we had to move that to a
bigger building and so it says played with Giants on
(04:06):
the door. We have our Freckle Farm Petting Zoo, which
is open all hours that we are here. Our DJ
George that travels all over the West doing all different
kinds of singing and music and he's amazing. We have
the dangerously fun juggling act of James Reed. And then
(04:26):
Friday and Saturday night we have our rodeo.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Okay, is there an extra charge for the rodeo?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
No, we do not charge extra for the rodeo.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Oh that's cool, all right? Yeah, and so is that
your only evening? Like entertainment inn per se, Well, we do.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Latin Night on Thursday night and we have very large,
large Latin bands that get on the stage and really
rock and roll the crowd.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
That sounds fun.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
It is fun. It is a very good time.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Okay, what about for each stuff?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
For eh stuff. Our youth has exploded so much in
the last few years, and so we now have to
open at eight o'clock on Wednesday morning to accommodate all
of our booster youth. We bring them in on Wednesdays now,
(05:24):
just because there's eighty four of them and that's a
lot of kids to get through the pigs, the goats, no,
let's see pigmy goats and dairy goats, and chickens and
rabbits and turkeys and cavy and pigeons and whatever else
those younger ones have. They come in on Wednesdays, they
go through Vetchek and then they do all their shows
(05:46):
Wednesday mornings. And then those children do not have to
come every day twice a day like they do when
they get older, and the parents are very thankful for that.
But they still get their five day pass and so
that the youth, those booster kids can come off five
days if they would like, if their parents want to
bring them, I guess I should say. And then from
(06:10):
there then Wednesday, starting at one pm, we start with
our game birds and cab and rabbit show, our breeding sheep,
public speaking breeding goats, pygmy goats, dairy goats for the
rest of the youth. And then we start up Thursday
morning again at eight am with waterfowl and turkey and
(06:31):
market swine and market lamb, goat, dairy cattle, everything like that.
So our Wednesday and Thursday are very very jam packed.
Friday we start with the swine showman, ship goat showmanship,
lamb pet show, and then the large stock round robin.
Oh so yeah, yeah, it's it's the first those Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
(06:54):
If we always feel if we can make it through
those three days, we can make it through anything in
the world.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I hope you've got a lot of helped setting it up.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, we just had fifty four kids here this morning.
Setting up. They set the small stock chairs to sit
in and where the you know, just where you have
to set kids, and the signage. They did the show barn.
They cleaned all the benches so when people come to
(07:26):
watch the large livestock shows, the benches are clean. They
set up all the turkey pens and the small stock
I mean, so those fifty four kids their work day.
Really they did a lot today. They really did a
lot today.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Oh that's cool, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, we've been doing that for many years.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Okay, all right, So what about food?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Oh, food is my favorite subject. I like a lot
of food. So we have everything from our smoke and
Steve's Barbecue out of Michigan to Yaquy's Takorea, a local
taco shop, finel cake, fry, bread. I mean, we just
(08:10):
we have it all and I love the food. So
tell me a little too much.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So do they walk around with the food or there
or pretty much stationary?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
The food vendors are stationary. The people can walk around.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yes, well some of the fares have food vendors that
walk around. That's why.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Oh like like in a baseball game type Yeah yeah,
oh wow yeah no, I my health department would literally
have my head if I did that.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I think, is it? Is it in closed fairgrounds?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
What do you mean inclosed? Well?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I mean since I mean nobody can sneak in without
paying right, correct?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Correct? And and that is the case, and they can
carry their food anywhere they want. But yeah, I can't imagine.
Our health department is very picky on how the food
is served and that sort of thing. I don't think
they would ever go for me having walking vendors.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Okay, so what what hours are this? Is this fair
open and closed?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So we start like I said we started. We start
Wednesday morning at eight am. We used to not open
till four o'clock on Wednesday, and so just last year
we started at this eight am getting ready for this
the booster show. And now we go Wednesday. The gates
(09:48):
open at eight, but we tell the public nine just
so that we can at least have one brain cell
when they get here. I don't know if I really
do at that time. So we start at nine am
on Wednesday and go to ten pm, and then Thursday
is ten to ten, Friday is ten to eleven, Saturday
(10:09):
is nine to eleven, and Sundays ten to four, so
we're all over the place. Of course, they couldn't make
it so I could say one time and cover all
my days. That would be too convenient. But we either
open at nine or ten in the morning.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And your entertainment for the evening.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Besides the road you on Friday and Saturday nights Thursday
night Latin night. Yep, Nope, that's what we have. And
then the juggler does a nighttime fire act, the Sonoran
reptiles playing with giants, and the petting zoo. I lost
(10:48):
my words. The petting zoo are all open until like
nine o'clock at night.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
So okay, okay, well you've pretty much covered and there's
a lot of restrooms around for us old folks, right correct.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Our bigger buildings all have attached not on the inside,
but outside of them. They have attached built bathrooms. And
then we have a ton of portables around.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Okay, okay, all right, So this fairgrounds has other events
that occur during the year.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Oh yes, we are extremely busy fairgrounds. We have I
would say a minimum of four days or nights a week.
We have activities here at the fairgrounds. We have everything
from weekly bow hunters to weekly quilters, weekly wood carvers,
(11:38):
youth clubs and organizations FFA four h all of them
can use the facility at any time that they want.
A lot of the baseball, softball teams, track teams, any
sporting teams use our facility when they have events that
they want to put on. The police department have events here,
(11:59):
the fire depart has emans. We are not a city
or county facility. We are a nonprofit with a board,
but we do not. We are not property based, property
tax based.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Okay, all right, well I guess you've pretty well covered it,
so it was a nice thing you want to add
before we close.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
No, no, we'd love to have everybody come. And our
website is vbfair dot com. Be like Bertie, v like
Kelly vbfair dot com.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Okay, well, I've enjoyed talking to you. We'll get this
up and hopefully we'll help you out.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Sounds great. I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Have a great day YouTube. Bye bye, bye bye.
Hi, this is cool, kay and County Fairgrounds. Do I
have Colleen of the Verdi Valley Fair rounds? All? Yes,
you do, Hi Colleen? Are you the manager?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I am the director? Correct?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Okay? All right, all right, So the very Valley Fair
is coming up in Cattonwood, Arizona. What are the dates?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
April thirtieth through May fourth, twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Okay, so what is your approximate attendance? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Between the five days between free tickets, exhibitors, vendors, we
run about twenty four nine hundred, so we say twenty five.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
That's cool. That's cool. All right. Now. One of the
first questions that I have as a senior is how
is the parking terrible? But that's always what happens.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We are in our retirement community, so there are a
lot of needs, is how I'm going to say that
for handicapped parking. So we have a lot of designated
parking and we make more for fair But unfortunately, I
think I could do my entire parking lot and probably
(01:06):
not accommodate all of the handicapped parking that comes to
our fare.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, I hear you. Life is a challenge.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It is. And then you work at a fair ground,
so you know, roll with it.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, okay, all right? So what is the address and
where is the parking lot?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Okay? So the address is eight hundred East Cherry Street
in Cottonwent, Arizona.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
And the parking lot is the first thing you come to.
It's how you get to our fair.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
All right. So do you have any like when seniors
come to the gates, are there anything to help them?
I mean, do you have a map of the ground.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
We do not, because when you come into our fair,
I require you to go to our fair first, and
then you can go to the carnival in the food
area if you want to. So when you come in,
you are right in the middle of our exhibits, our
livestock and all that stuff, and then you can walk
over to the carnival and food area.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Okay, all right. So also I'm going to ask you
when you come in the front gate, do you have
like one front gate?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
One front gate? Correct?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Okay? All right? So are there restrooms nearby?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yes? When you first come in, that's one of the
first things you come You purchase your ticket, you go
through security, and you're passing on. I'm going to say
the north end of the steerbarn. And right when you
get to the end of the steerbarn, I think that's
sixty feet wide is the restrooms. So right inside the
gate is the first set of restrooms.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Okay, and then you know, the next thing I'm going
to ask is do we have grounds? X?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yes, we do. Do you want to know what they are?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Are you excited now? Are we doing it now? Or
do you want to do it in a minute?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Oh, go ahead, tell me what you got.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
We got Slim and Curly, the Fables of the West.
I don't know if you've heard of them. They are
two gentlemen that dress up as horses and they tell
jokes and they are very, very very popular. I should
keep them every year, but I don't. I try and
mix them up. But anyway, the Fables of the West
(03:23):
are coming. Slim and Curly. Steve's fun balloons, who's a
balloon artist, and that he strolls all around and takes
care of that. We have Sonoran Reptiles, which is open
all the hours that the fairs are open and has
all different kinds of Sonoran desert reptiles, snakes, tortoises, that
sort of thing that you get to go and look
at and some things you get to pat obviously not
(03:44):
the rattlesnakes and HeLa monsters, but other things. We have
Play with Giants, Playing with Giants, which is also like
the Sonoran Reptiles, open the entire time that you're here
so that you can go in, get out of the
sun and just cool off. It's in our our former
art building, but we had to move that to a
bigger building and so it says played with Giants on
(04:06):
the door. We have our Freckle Farm Petting Zoo, which
is open all hours that we are here. Our DJ
George that travels all over the West doing all different
kinds of singing and music and he's amazing. We have
the dangerously fun juggling act of James Reed. And then
(04:26):
Friday and Saturday night we have our rodeo.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Okay, is there an extra charge for the rodeo?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
No, we do not charge extra for the rodeo.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Oh that's cool, all right? Yeah, and so is that
your only evening? Like entertainment inn per se, Well, we do.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Latin Night on Thursday night and we have very large,
large Latin bands that get on the stage and really
rock and roll the crowd.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
That sounds fun.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
It is fun. It is a very good time.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Okay, what about for each stuff?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
For eh stuff. Our youth has exploded so much in
the last few years, and so we now have to
open at eight o'clock on Wednesday morning to accommodate all
of our booster youth. We bring them in on Wednesdays now,
(05:24):
just because there's eighty four of them and that's a
lot of kids to get through the pigs, the goats, no,
let's see pigmy goats and dairy goats, and chickens and
rabbits and turkeys and cavy and pigeons and whatever else
those younger ones have. They come in on Wednesdays, they
go through Vetchek and then they do all their shows
(05:46):
Wednesday mornings. And then those children do not have to
come every day twice a day like they do when
they get older, and the parents are very thankful for that.
But they still get their five day pass and so
that the youth, those booster kids can come off five
days if they would like, if their parents want to
bring them, I guess I should say. And then from
(06:10):
there then Wednesday, starting at one pm, we start with
our game birds and cab and rabbit show, our breeding sheep,
public speaking breeding goats, pygmy goats, dairy goats for the
rest of the youth. And then we start up Thursday
morning again at eight am with waterfowl and turkey and
(06:31):
market swine and market lamb, goat, dairy cattle, everything like that.
So our Wednesday and Thursday are very very jam packed.
Friday we start with the swine showman, ship goat showmanship,
lamb pet show, and then the large stock round robin.
Oh so yeah, yeah, it's it's the first those Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
(06:54):
If we always feel if we can make it through
those three days, we can make it through anything in
the world.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I hope you've got a lot of helped setting it up.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, we just had fifty four kids here this morning.
Setting up. They set the small stock chairs to sit
in and where the you know, just where you have
to set kids, and the signage. They did the show barn.
They cleaned all the benches so when people come to
(07:26):
watch the large livestock shows, the benches are clean. They
set up all the turkey pens and the small stock
I mean, so those fifty four kids their work day.
Really they did a lot today. They really did a
lot today.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Oh that's cool, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, we've been doing that for many years.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Okay, all right, So what about food?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Oh, food is my favorite subject. I like a lot
of food. So we have everything from our smoke and
Steve's Barbecue out of Michigan to Yaquy's Takorea, a local
taco shop, finel cake, fry, bread. I mean, we just
(08:10):
we have it all and I love the food. So
tell me a little too much.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So do they walk around with the food or there
or pretty much stationary?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
The food vendors are stationary. The people can walk around.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yes, well some of the fares have food vendors that
walk around. That's why.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Oh like like in a baseball game type Yeah yeah,
oh wow yeah no, I my health department would literally
have my head if I did that.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I think, is it? Is it in closed fairgrounds?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
What do you mean inclosed? Well?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I mean since I mean nobody can sneak in without
paying right, correct?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Correct? And and that is the case, and they can
carry their food anywhere they want. But yeah, I can't imagine.
Our health department is very picky on how the food
is served and that sort of thing. I don't think
they would ever go for me having walking vendors.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Okay, so what what hours are this? Is this fair
open and closed?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So we start like I said we started. We start
Wednesday morning at eight am. We used to not open
till four o'clock on Wednesday, and so just last year
we started at this eight am getting ready for this
the booster show. And now we go Wednesday. The gates
(09:48):
open at eight, but we tell the public nine just
so that we can at least have one brain cell
when they get here. I don't know if I really
do at that time. So we start at nine am
on Wednesday and go to ten pm, and then Thursday
is ten to ten, Friday is ten to eleven, Saturday
(10:09):
is nine to eleven, and Sundays ten to four, so
we're all over the place. Of course, they couldn't make
it so I could say one time and cover all
my days. That would be too convenient. But we either
open at nine or ten in the morning.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And your entertainment for the evening.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Besides the road you on Friday and Saturday nights Thursday
night Latin night. Yep, Nope, that's what we have. And
then the juggler does a nighttime fire act, the Sonoran
reptiles playing with giants, and the petting zoo. I lost
(10:48):
my words. The petting zoo are all open until like
nine o'clock at night.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
So okay, okay, well you've pretty much covered and there's
a lot of restrooms around for us old folks, right correct.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Our bigger buildings all have attached not on the inside,
but outside of them. They have attached built bathrooms. And
then we have a ton of portables around.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Okay, okay, all right, So this fairgrounds has other events
that occur during the year.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Oh yes, we are extremely busy fairgrounds. We have I
would say a minimum of four days or nights a week.
We have activities here at the fairgrounds. We have everything
from weekly bow hunters to weekly quilters, weekly wood carvers,
(11:38):
youth clubs and organizations FFA four h all of them
can use the facility at any time that they want.
A lot of the baseball, softball teams, track teams, any
sporting teams use our facility when they have events that
they want to put on. The police department have events here,
(11:59):
the fire depart has emans. We are not a city
or county facility. We are a nonprofit with a board,
but we do not. We are not property based, property
tax based.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Okay, all right, well I guess you've pretty well covered it,
so it was a nice thing you want to add
before we close.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
No, no, we'd love to have everybody come. And our
website is vbfair dot com. Be like Bertie, v like
Kelly vbfair dot com.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Okay, well, I've enjoyed talking to you. We'll get this
up and hopefully we'll help you out.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Sounds great. I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Have a great day YouTube. Bye bye, bye bye.
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