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Missouri State Fair

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Coordinates: 38°41′40″N 93°15′23″W / 38.69444°N 93.25639°W / 38.69444; -93.25639
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Missouri State Fairgrounds Historic District
2011 Missouri State Fair - Ferris Wheel at Sunset
Missouri State Fair is located in Missouri
Missouri State Fair
Missouri State Fair is located in the United States
Missouri State Fair
LocationRoughly bounded by US 65, Co. Rd. Y, Clarendon Rd. and the Missouri--Kansas--Texas RR tracks, Sedalia, Missouri
Coordinates38°41′40″N 93°15′23″W / 38.69444°N 93.25639°W / 38.69444; -93.25639
Area215 acres (87 ha)
Built byBast, Thomas W.; Et al.
Architectural styleArt Deco, Mission/spanish Revival, Romanesque
NRHP reference No.91000853[1]
Added to NRHPJune 28, 1991
Auto daredevil show at the Missouri State Fair, 1960s

The Missouri State Fair is the state fair for the state of Missouri, which has operated since 1901 in Sedalia, Missouri. It includes daily concerts, exhibits and competitions of animals, homemade crafts, shows, and many food/lemonade stands, and it lasts 11 days. The fairgrounds are located at 2503 W 16th Street on the southwest side of the city at the intersection of West 16th Street (State Highway Y) and South Limit Avenue (U.S. Highway 65).

In 2015, the Missouri State Fair had an attendance of about 350,000 people.[2]

History

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In 1897, N. H. Gentry of Sedalia persuaded the Missouri Swine Breeders Association to request the Missouri General Assembly to establish a state fair. In 1899, a resolution for the fair was introduced by C.E. Clark.

The 2005 Missouri State Fair

The state considered locating the fair in Centralia, Chillicothe, Marshall, Mexico, Moberly, and Sedalia. Cities made offers on the amounts of land they would commit to the fair.

After ten ballots, Sedalia received the majority vote; it had bid 150 acres (0.61 km2), the most land of any city to be devoted to the fairgrounds. The Van Riper family, who had set land aside for the location of the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri, also donated the site in Sedalia.

The first Missouri State Fair was held September 9–13 in 1901. One of the most distinctive aspects of the early fairs was the "white city": the 24 acres (97,000 m2) of tents, each for rent by exhibitors.

Odessa Ice Cream was the official ice cream at the Missouri State Fair in the 1930s.[3]: 9 

The State Fair was held during the First World War,[4] but was canceled in 1943 and 1944, during the Second World War.[5][6]

U.S. Senator Harry S. Truman chose the Missouri State Fair as the place to formally launch his campaign for re-election to the Senate in 1940, shortly after the collapse of the Pendergast machine.[7][8] In his speech at the Fair on July 15, 1940, Truman strongly endorsed the New Deal, including equality for African Americans.[7][8] He chose the State Fair although Sedalia was deep in Ku Klux Klan country.[8]

The fairgrounds was struck by an F2 tornado on August 21, 1952. There was considerable damage along its path, with one person killed and 13 others injured.[9][10]

The fairgrounds hosted the Ozark Music Festival July 19–21, 1974. It rivaled the 1969 Woodstock festival in size, and was notorious for chaos and mismanagement: although no more than 50,000 tickets were sold, an estimated crowd of 350,000 people showed up.[11][12] There were no more than five portable toilets on site, there were several hundred drug overdoses, and some attendees raided nearby cows and pigs for food. Hosted by Wolfman Jack, the festival includes 27 bands, including the Eagles, Aerosmith, Joe Walsh, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Marshall Tucker Band, REO Speedwagon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Ted Nugent.[11] The fairgrounds were trashed a few weeks before the State Fair,[11] causing approximately $100,000 in damages to the fairgrounds and raising concerns that the Fair might be canceled.[11][12] After cleanup efforts, the 1974 State Fair was able to go forward as planned..[11][12] The festival was later investigated by the Missouri Highway Patrol and a select committee of the Missouri State Senate (the "Select Senate Committee Investigating the Rock Festival"), which said that the festival was a "disaster" that "made the degradation of Sodom and Gomorrah appear mild."[11][12]

In 2020, the State Fair was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic: the only event held was a youth livestock event.[13][14] The State Fair returned in 2021.[15]

Attendance

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Attendance was just under 338,000 in 2009,[16] and just under 341,000 in 2018.[17] About 350,000 attended in 2023.[18]

Fairgrounds

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The Missouri State Fairgrounds Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.[1] It encompasses 47 contributing buildings, 5 contributing sites, 7 contributing structures, and 7 contributing objects. The district developed between 1901 and 1941, and includes representative examples of Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Romanesque Revival architecture. They include several red brick exposition halls and animal barns, concrete drinking fountains constructed by Works Progress Administration, and concession buildings.[19]

Governance

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2011 Missouri State Fair Skyline

The fair is overseen by the Missouri State Fair Commission, which appoints a director of the State Fair.[20]

The Commission consists of nine members: eight appointed commissioners plus the director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, who serves ex officio.[21] Of the nine members of the board, two members are required to be "active farmers"; two are required to serve (or have served) as president of a county fair or regional fair boards; and one member must be an agribusiness employee.[21] Of the eight appointed commissioners, no more than four commissioners may belong to the same political party, and no more than two commissioners may reside in the same congressional district.[21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ http://www.missourinet.com/2016/08/27/2016-missouri-state-fair-includes-two-record-attendance-days/ record
  3. ^ Cydney E. Millstein (June 1996). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Odessa Ice Cream Company Building" (PDF). Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved January 1, 2017. (includes 8 photographs from 1996)
  4. ^ The Fair in Wartime, Secretary of State of Missouri.
  5. ^ Cameron Gerber, The Missouri State Fair: A timeline, Missouri Times (August 16, 2021).
  6. ^ Missouri State Fair Milestones
  7. ^ a b Jeffrey L. Pasley, "Big Deal in Little Tammany: Kansas City, the Pendergast Machine, and the Liberal Transformation of the Democratic Party" in Wide-open Town: Kansas City in the Pendergast Era (editors Diane Mutti Burke, Jason Roe & John Herron: University Press of Kansas: 2018), pp. 49-50.
  8. ^ a b c D. M. Giangreco & Kathryn Moore, Dear Harry: Letters to President Truman (Stackpole Books: second paperback ed. 2019), p. 45.
  9. ^ "Climatological Data: National summary". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Data and Information Service, National Climatic Center. 1952. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  10. ^ "Missouri Event Report: F2 Tornado". National Centers for Environmental Information. National Weather Service. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Mike Genet, 'last of the big, stupid, uncontrolled' festivals: Documentary explores infamous 1974 Ozark Music Festival, The Examiner (June 21, 2021).
  12. ^ a b c d Cameron Gerber, How a 1970s music festival nearly derailed the State Fair, The Missouri Times (August 11, 2021).
  13. ^ Marianne Martinez, Missouri State Fair canceled, KSDK (July 17, 2020).
  14. ^ Andrea Klick, Missouri State Fair pivots and cancels most events, citing public health concerns, Kansas City Star (July 17, 2020).
  15. ^ Erin Heffernan, Missouri State Fair returns in full swing, despite surging virus numbers, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (August 14, 2021).
  16. ^ "Attendance at 2009 State Fair Increases As Missourians Respond to Affordability" Archived 2009-12-17 at the Wayback Machine, Press Release, 6 Oct 2009, Missouri State Fair, accessed 23 Dec 2009
  17. ^ Missouri State Fair tallies 341K visitors this year, Associated Press (October 11, 2018).
  18. ^ Regan Mertz, Missouri State Fair welcomed over a quarter of a million visitors, attendance increased from last year, KRCG (September 21, 2023).
  19. ^ Roger Maserang and Steven E. Mitchell (April 1991). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Missouri State Fairgrounds Historic District" (PDF). Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved February 1, 2017. (includes 71 photographs from 1990)
  20. ^ Regan Mertz, Missouri State Fair Commission announces new director, KRCG (October 4, 2023).
  21. ^ a b c Details on Board or Commission: State Fair Commission, State of Missouri (last accessed October 25, 2023).

Further reading

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  • Richard Gaskell, The Missouri State Fair: Images of a Midwestern Tradition (University of Missouri Press: 2000)
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