Event Planning: How to Run a Local Fair

Everyone in every town loves to go to the fair. This is the best event for families of all ages to attend together for a few nights of pure fun and excitement. For the creative event planner, putting together a local fair can be a great way to make a lot of money in just a few days time. Let's take a look at what exactly is involved in bringing a fair to your town.

The first thing you will need to do is find a large location in which you can hold your event. The best kind of location to use for this type of event would be a larger clear and open field in a high traffic area. You will also need to be sure that the land has an electricity source on site so that the midway company can connect their equipment to a power source to make everything work. The cost of the land as well as the bill for the electricity will be the responsibility of the event planner (person who's name is on the rental of the land contract). Also note that the city and county departments will all need a layout plan for the fair so that they would know how to navigate the area in the event of an emergency. This is best accomplished by giving the property dimensions of the land to the midway company so they can illustrate the layout of the ride and stands for the event. You can make copies of the layout plan and be sure to give them to local, fire, police, and any other city officials that may need them prior to the event.

Now that you have the land secured for the event, you will need to build your fair event. There are basically two ways in which you can build your fair. Most of us simply can not afford to lease equipment and rides from another owner and pay to staff properly trained people to run the event, so we will discuss the primary option for such an event.

If you go online and search for Midway or Carnival companies throughout the country, you will find several various family and corporate owned midways that offer a wide array of attractions and gimmicks for your particular event. My particular preference is to go with a family owned midway. In general, the corporate owned carnivals think they are more impressive and bigger than everyone else just because they have the backing of multiple third party investors. The truth is their shows are generally no better than those of the family owned operations. Be sure to contact several midways from all over the country before selecting one. Don't be too concerned with selecting one that is closer to your area, these companies are almost all willing to travel cross-country to put on a week long event and make a lot of money in the process (hence, why they are called traveling shows).

The majority of companies will need all the site plans and area demographics that you can get together for them so that they can professionally determine exactly how much show they can setup in your area and what kind of income they can expect to make on site for the show. After they have done all their research and planning, they will contact you back with their best offer to perform your show. In most cases, they will offer you a flat rate payment for the rights to run the show for themselves (in this case, you are basically a site finder and get paid a "finder's fee" for bringing them to the area. If you accept their payment offer, you are no longer in control of the event, accept for the paying for the land you rented, and you have no control over the show itself (prices charged, vendor fees, or being able to put anything into the show). As scary as this may sound keep in mind that they are professionals and they have insurance guidelines too that force them to be in control of and liable for whatever happens within their fair grounds. As long as you have gone to the table with a handful of midways, and compared a few offers from different shows, you will make a great amount of money in the upfront payment and as a result face no risk in losing any money on the show!

And while you are technically not running the show as it happens, you should still stand in the middle of the midway with a huge smile on your face knowing that you made this event possible!