We are proposing a new start and end day change for the Medina County fair. This start and end day change could strongly benefit the safety of our guests, benefit the profitability of our fair by offering TWO Saturdays and a Sunday for our fair to hold main entertainment and increase gate ticket sales, and allow the exhausted parent's, exhibitors and livestock to be able to get settled back in at home at a decent time before they have to go back to work, and extra curriculars the following day.

In our current situation, we have exhausted families and livestock forced to wait until 8pm Sunday evening to be able to pack up multiple projects and head home. This means that most families aren't able to get home and unpacked until the late hours of the night on Sunday. With the fair being open to the public on this day, this also creates a huge safety issue for fair-goers as large trucks and trailers attempt to navigate through the crowd, in hopes that fair guests have a good watch on their kids and families to keep them from being in a place they can't be seen near the trailers or in front of the hood of a large truck. We have heard of many close-calls with kids being in front of trucks and unseen. This also puts many 4H families in the situation of having to explain to fair guests where most of the animals have gone (as we all know, this conversation often doesn't go well with those that don't understand or agree with the market process). Families are trying to get pens stripped and cleaned (this isn't a very pleasing smell for our guests to be experiencing, nor is it sanitary for someone not used to the ammonia. 

 We are proposing to hold future fairs from Saturday to Saturday, with check in being on Friday. The last Saturday still being a full fair day, with entertainment, ALL of the animals, and the closing fireworks. Then, allowing Sunday for the processors to come in first to load out, and the rest of us to follow directly after, with fair being CLOSED to the public. This gives our fair 3 weekend days to hold entertainment and create revenue and allows families and livestock to safely depart from the fair. 

This may not be the greatest solution, but either way, what we have in place isn't working out well. This a start and will hopefully allow us to come up with a solution as a team.