Georgia Mountain Fair 2024

CoolKay and Countyfairgrounds.net interview  the fair manager, Hilda Thomason.    The Georgia Mountain Fair from Hiawasee, GA. We talk about what there is to do at this years event and what is coming up following the event.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is Coquanne County Fairgrounds dot Net. I have
held the Thomison manager of the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds. I'm
align with me about the upcoming there that's starting on
the sixteenth. I believe he'll do yes, that's correct. Thank
you for having me August sixth, seat through the twenty fourth. Okay,
So give me a little bit of the history of
this event, please, Well, the George Mountain Fair has been

(00:21):
going on since nineteen fifty, so we've been in business
a long time. Nineteen fifty was our first fayre. George
Mountain Fair Incorporated is a non profit organization. We're a
five oh one C three and our whole purpose for
being in businesses to promote tourism here in the North
Georgia Mountains and bring people up here to help the
businesses and help the economy. Okay. So one of the

(00:42):
things I always ask about is always a very important
first question if I think of going to affair, how
is the parking? The parking is wonderful. We have a
thousand car parking lot here at the fair grounds. We
also have a trolley that we transport people from the
parking lot down to the front gate. We have hot
golf carts for handicapped people to take them to the

(01:02):
music hall or bring them back to the parking lots.
So we have plenty of parking. We're in the mountains,
it's a beautiful area. We're right on the Lake Shattu.
But we are definitely here to accommodate the people. Okay,
So if I'm a senior coming in now, what would
you suggest Adrian? First, Well, of course, I want you
to come to the fair and spend all your Money's
the first thing I want you to do. Now, we

(01:25):
have lots to do to entertain the adults as well
as the children. We have sixty eight arts and crafts
boots that's all set up with all kinds of vendors.
We have plenty of food, some great fair food, and
we have an auditorium that seats twenty nine hundred people
where we have all the concerts and we have some
really really good entertainment. We have Nashville talent coming in,

(01:47):
some great headliners, and we have all different types of music.
We have gospel, we have bluegrass, we have country. Just
about any kind that you want to listen to, we've got.
We also have a carnival. The children can ride the
rides well as the adults, and that's opened. The Carnival's
open the whole entire nine days and nine nights. We
have a Miss Georgia Mountain Fair Beauty paget coming up Thursday,

(02:10):
August the fifty, so we have ten contestants in the paget.
So we'll have a beautiful winter. And we also have
a Georgia Mountain Fair Parade which has been going on
for many, many years, and it starts in downtown Highwassee
and comes down through the town and circles the fair grounds. Okay,
all right, Well one of us things I always ask
as a senior, and I am concerned out you know,

(02:30):
if I have kids under twelve, what's the restroom facilities? Like? Oh,
we have great restrooms. We have permanent restrooms. We don't
have to use any portajohns. As you go in the
front gate when you pay to go in, it's bathrooms there.
There's three or four stalls in each weet men's and women's.
We have another bathroom down next to the Hoot and
Nanny State where we have outdoor entertainment. There's bathrooms. There

(02:52):
were down at the exhibit Hall where we have a
exhibit hall in the Antique farm Museum and the flower
show and the photography exhibit. There's bathrooms there and then
we also have nice restrooms in the music hall. Okay,
so I take it it's pretty easy to find your
way around the fairground. Then. Oh, yes, we have a map.
We have a directory showing you the route of everything,

(03:12):
where everything's located, and very easy to find. Very nice
facility here at the fairgrounds. We also have two hundred
and thirteen camp sites here on Lactritude surrounded by the fairground.
Oh that's cool. That's cool, all right, So what exactly
should I do first? You know, you come in there
with a bunch of kids under twelve, they get all excited.
What would you suggest? Well, I would suggest when they

(03:33):
first come in to the gates, taking them maybe to
the Knine Dog Show. This is absolutely an awesome show.
We had this about ten years ago and that's very entertaining.
There's three shows a day down there. They can go
and see the animals. We've got all kinds of animals
and petting zoo. We have all faith what pony rides.

(03:55):
We have pony rides, we have face painting, for the children.
So if you've got a bunch of kids, we're here entertainment.
And of course the carnival opens on the weekends at
twelve o'clock on Saturday and one o'clock on Sunday, and
then of the evenings that open through the week it
opens at four but they can ride from four pm
to midnight. Is the carnival included in the prace of admission, No, ma'am,

(04:17):
it's extra for the carnival rides. You can buy an
arm arm band bracelet for twenty five dollars. I think
it's twenty five. All this is on our website at
Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds dot com. But it's an extra cost
for the rides. Okay, all right? What about food vendors?
Where are at and what you got? We have about
fifteen food vendors. We have food trucks, food boos, we

(04:40):
have anything you want to eat. We've got tacos, We've
got chicken, we have hamburgers, hot dogs, we have ice cream,
funnel cakes, fudge. Anything you want to eat, we got it.
And you go down to the carnival. You can get candy,
apples and cotton candy and just about anything. You want,
We've got it. I mean, there's plenty to choose from.

(05:00):
And in the music hall we have a concession stamp
where we have pizza and hot dogs and barbecue and
nachos and pretzels and all kinds of drinks. And we
will have a bar set up here in the concerts
inside then easy cost. So if you want beer and wine,
we have that as well for all the concerts. And
the auditorium has got heat and air in it. It
seats twenty nine hundred people, so it'll be nice and

(05:23):
cool in the building even though it's hot outside. You
can enjoy, sit back and enjoy all the great talent
that we have. So what's your favorite fair food? My
favorite fair food used to be smoked trout. We had
a trout booth down here at the fairgrounds and that
was our specialty. We had North Georgia Mountain smoked trout.
It was absolutely wonderful. And the people that run all

(05:45):
this for me were all volunteers and they've all passed
away just about it, and I just didn't have anybody
to step up to bat and take charge and do
this and continue doing it. So and the trout booth
was getting really in bad shape and it was gonna
cost a lot of money to redo it, and then
I didn't have the people to staff it and help me,
so we tore that down and we put a big

(06:06):
stage there where we have outdoor entertainment. It's called the
Hooton Nanny Stage, and we set up tables and chairs
not only for the Fayre, but for all of our
events like the wine Festival, the craft beer Festival and
the car shows, and people sit around, listen to the
music and eat their lunch or whatever, and they just
really have a good time. Okay, So what ours is this, Sarah.

(06:27):
Then we're open through the week. We open at eleven
am and crafts close at seven, but the music doesn't
start till seven pm. So the gates open at six
to go in the music hall and that'll be over
somewhere around ten o'clock on Sunday week. Now, there's an
extra charge for the music hall at that train, Yes, ma'am,

(06:48):
there is extra charge. We got Jeene Watson and the
Bellamie Brothers come in opening day. We have Saturday Tommy
James and the Shandale's on Saturday. You can purchase those
tickets online or give us a call, or you can
buy them at the gate either one. Yeah, but if
you buy those tickets to get into the music hall,
that includes the fairy mission, so you don't have to
pay an extra fee for the to go into the fair.

(07:10):
But if you want to go in just to the
fair and not go to the music hall, it's seven
dollars per person and under twelve free. Okay, all right,
So I don't see. You're not a county fair, so
you don't have like four each belies, you have animal exhibits.
We are not a county fair. We're privately owned. Georgia
Mountain Fair Incorporated is privately owned. We have a board

(07:32):
of directors. I'm the general manager and then it's a
project of the town's County Lines Club and that a
lot of people come in and volunteer from the community
as well as the Lion's Club and help us run
all these events. And we get no money from the
state or the county. Only money we get from the
county is hotel and motel tax, which we help create,

(07:53):
and that money is used for advertising. All right, Are
there other events take a line during the year at
this Yes, ma'am. We have something here just about every
weekend we had, Like I said earlier, we have Wine
Festival with about thirty wineries from North Georgia, which is
absolutely a wonderful event and we all that's taking place outside,
but we usually try to have a concert in the

(08:14):
music hall that night. Then we have a craft Beer
Festival in October where we have about seventy eight breweries
that come in and set up and we have all
kinds of vendors set up and music on the grounds
and it's unlimited tasting and taste all the beer you
want to for a tasting ticket and you get a
souvenir glass. We have three car shows here on the fairgrounds.
We have the HIGHWAYSI Rod run, the Memory Lane Classic

(08:36):
Car Show and the Northeast Georgia Shelby Mustang in Ford Meat.
That's three car shows that we have. Next year we're
going to add a Mimosa festival. This is going to
be called the Boots and Boots and Bubbles Festival. This
is something new we're going to have next year. And
we're going to add another festival next year. It's called
a Scottish Festival. It's been held over in Blairsville, Georgia,

(08:58):
which is its aint in town to us and they've
got out ground their space over there and they need
to continue growing it, so they're moving it to the
fairgrounds next year. And that's brought in over eight thousand
people this year and Blairsville, so we're excited to bring that.
We had a laser show this year for the first time,
was absolutely We had over four thousand people here for that,
had bands, vendors, all kinds of children's activities, and just

(09:22):
something going on all the time. Yeah, we got two
rodeos a year. We have my Moral Day weekend and
Labor Day weekend and those rodeos have grown so much.
That's when we had to start having two because couldn't
get them all in at the first rodeo. And we
have a Mountain Country Christmas and Lights. It starts Thanksgiving
weekend and that runs up until December twenty third. It's

(09:42):
a walk through Christmas light show that's absolutely beautiful. And
we have the daily event Son American Maid Festival in September.
That's a three day festival that we've been having for
about six years that brings people from all over the
United States here for that event. A great festival for
all three days and then the Mountain Country Christmas and Lights.
There's two new things we're adding this year. We just

(10:04):
went to commerce last week and bought a train. It's
a big diesel engine train. It's got three carts plus
a Santa Flay. We'll be giving rides throughout the park
during the Christmas light Show. Of course, we'll use it
for Halloween, and we're actually gonna be getting it Friday
and we're gonna put it in the George Mountain Fair
Parade coming up. So ah, okay, really neat. And then

(10:25):
we also have this gentleman from Gainesville, Georgia. We went
back last winter and saw his setup. He's got a
complete Coca Cola village. It's a snow village with all
of the displayed is all lit up. It's completely lit up.
It's absolutely beautiful. It's like a ten thousand dollars said
that he's sending to us, and we've got that and

(10:47):
don't have that open for the christ Mountain Country Christmas
and Lights and just a lot of events. We're just
primo those Georgia Mountain Fire and Smoke Cooking Festival. This
is one hundred twenty five cooks that cook here at
the fair grounds on the Primos and the Big Green Eggs,
and you just go by and are you just coming
buy a taster's ticket and you can go through and

(11:08):
just taste suit all day long. And we start serving
breakfast at nine o'clock and then they serve lush and
then go right on until the shut down at three
o'clock in the afternoon. But that brings in about three
thousand people. And we also have two yard cells a year.
We have one in the spring and one in the fall,
and that will bring in a lot of people. All
the booths GT filled up and it brings in thousands
of people. Okay, all right, lusch I take a great

(11:32):
time where the US court that you're looking forward to,
I'm sorry, I didn't understand you. What are you looking
forward to the most? But I'm looking forward to bringing
lots of people into the community and making lots of money.
I'm excited that people know who we are. We're the
country music capital of Georgia. And we've also been picked
as one of the top one hundred events in North

(11:53):
America by the American Bus Association. We've been picked it's
the top twenty events in the Southeast by the Southeast
truith In Society. Uh, for many many years. And where's
the happening thing in the North Georgia Mountains. Okay, well,
we'll get this up and hopefully it'll help you out.
I've enjoy thank you, enjoyed talking to you. Thank you
so much. Bye bye