Tennessee has no more State Fair

People who follow public affairs in Middle Tennessee have been aware of the troubles of the Tennessee State Fair for some time. Those of us in East Tennessee and perhaps some in West Tennessee wouldn't have known about the difficulties that the fair has been having without it being written about in agricultural publications like The Cooperator or Tennessee Home and Farm. Since we receive those publications at the Oatney household and I read them, I've known for some time that the State Fair could be on the verge of being scuttled because of the economic and attendance problems it has experienced for many years prior to the ongoing depression. At a Nashville/Davidson County Metro Council meeting yesterday, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean announced that the 100-year old Tennessee State Fair will become a footnote in Tennessee history:

 Metro Council  members expressed a mixture of regret and understanding Tuesday over Mayor Karl Dean's decision to shut down the century-old Tennessee State Fair  and the equally historic racetrack at the city-owned fairgrounds.

The council committee that keeps an eye on the fairgrounds heard a presentation from the facility's management a day after Dean gave other tenants, like the flea market and Christmas Village, an additional six months to find new locations. The mayor wants to redevelop the fairgrounds after concluding that the fair and racetrack are no longer financially viable, but he said the other long-standing events should have until the end of 2010 to relocate. Dean had originally said the city would take control of the fairgrounds on June 30.

Some people may say that the fair's closing is a symptomatic sign not only of bad economic times, but of the decline of agriculture in Tennessee. I couldn't disagree with that sentiment more, since I've seen firsthand that our county fairs in East Tennessee do extremely well by comparison, and even in a bad year like this, local fairs usually make enough money to break even, and make a profit in a good year. The livestock exhibitions and food, art, and craft competitions remain extremely popular, even in this hyper-modern age in which we live. While I haven't had any experience with county and regional fairs in West Tennessee, I'd be willing to bet that most of them are not in danger of death.

The ferris wheel at the Tennessee State Fair (Photo: The Nashville CityPaper)

So what killed the Tennessee State Fair?

Regionalism is a huge part of the problem, of course. East Tennessee has the Tennessee Valley Fair as its popular regional agricultural exhibition, and people in this area would just as soon drive to Knoxville to a fair just as large or larger than the State Fair as they would drive all the way to Nashville for an exhibition of similar, or now lesser quality. West Tennessee also has the closer West Tennessee State Fair for people in that part of the State. There is also the issue of a lack of State support over the years in a way that might have saved the fair as a showcase of Tennessee agriculture-and by support that doesn't necessarily mean to prop up the fair with State money (which would be unwise stewardship). States which have successful State fairs (Minnesota, Ohio, and Texas come to mind), the State Fair Board is often either appointed or approved by the Governor, Agriculture Commissioner, or whatever department would be charged with overseeing agribusiness in the State-the fair exists to promote agriculture, after all. That would not mean that the State would or should prop up an unsuccessful fair-it should not. However, the city currently owning the State Fairgrounds rather than the State (giving the city as opposed to the State the ultimate oversight of the fair), meant that the Tennessee State Fair was not truly a State fair for quite some time.

The traditional courtesies extended to successful State fairs by county, regional, and independent fair boards not to hold their exhibitions while the State fair was going on is not the standard practice in Tennessee today, and it didn't matter if your county fair conflicted with the Tennessee State Fair. Attendance at the fair was not encouraged Statewide, and other than in the agricultural publications of groups like the Farm Bureau or the Tennessee Farmers' Cooperative, the fair has not advertised across the State consistently. The structure under which the fair operated did not make it conducive to being a bona fide State agricultural and industrial exhibition-midway and all.

I do not propose that the General Assembly should save the Tennessee State Fair, I believe that would be a very unwise use of taxpayer money- especially in the present times in which we live. It is lamentable, however, that the structure to make the Tennessee State Fair a showcase for all of our farmers, ranchers, and for the whole people of this State never really existed. That reality was the real seed of the destruction of a 100-year old fair.