The Bloomsburg Fair has been held in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, since 1855 and continues to this day. [1]
The Bloomsburg Fair has been held in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, since 1855 and continues to this day. [1]
It was originally held as an agricultural exhibition located on the lower end of Second Street, which is now Main Street. Since then it has grown to be the largest fair in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Bloomsburg Fair was started by Caleb Barton in 1854. The 156th Bloomsburg Fair was held from September 25 to October 2, 2010. In 2006, fair attendance for the week reached 413,203 people. The 157th Fair was scheduled to be held from September 24, 2011, to October 1, 2011, but was canceled due to flooding associated with Tropical Storm Lee. However, the fair returned with the 158th edition in 2012 after a one-year hiatus. [2] [3] [4] On July 28, 2020, it was announced that the fair has been cancelled for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides 2011 and 2020, there were other cancellations in 1917–18 due to World War I and 1942–44 due to World War II.
The Bloomsburg Fair is run and maintained by a board of 13 directors, each in charge of a different aspect of the Fair. They are voted in by the thousands of members that hold a share in the Bloomsburg Fair during a yearly meeting. Each director has a different term length and can maintain their station as long as the shareholders allow. Any member can run for position on the board of directors as long as they have held that share for more than two years.
Current elected Director positions include: President, Secretary, Treasurer, Superintendent of Ticket Collectors, Superintendent of Police & Parking, Superintendent of the Grandstand, Superintendent of Concessions, Superintendent of Livestock, Superintendent of Horse Racing & Free Stage Entertainment, Superintendent of Agriculture, Superintendent of Horticulture, Superintendent of Arts & Crafts, and Superintendent of Rabbits, Poultry, & School Exhibits. The position of Vice President is appointed from within the Superintendent's, and is not an elected position.
While each director has a specific set of duties they all vote for major changes and additions that happen at the Fair Grounds. [5]
The Bloomsburg Fair is one of the last quarter-mile dirt tracks to remain open during the winter season for harness racing. While the stage and seating is limited at the Bloomsburg Fair they still have high end entertainment. Fair week entertainment has been country music dominated but they allot two of the nights for a newer rock band and a classic rock band still in the past the fair has hosted acts such as Nelly, Three Days Grace, Sugarland, Seether, Lady Antebellum, Trace Adkins, 38 Special, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foreigner, and comedians such as Jeff Dunham and Bill Engvall. [6]
The fair has a variety of games, foods, shows, and contests. It has a midway with an assortment of carnival rides.
Every year, the Bloomsburg Fair's Grandstand hosts a variety of world-renowned musical artists, comedians, and general entertainment. [7] The horse races and demolition derby are also a popular form of entertainment at the Bloomsburg Fair.
In 2006, international superstar Taylor Swift performed her first major concert at the fair. [8]
Harrington is a city in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover metropolitan statistical area. Harrington hosts the annual Delaware State Fair each July. The population was 3,774 in 2020.
Bloomsburg is a town and the county seat of Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania and is located 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Wilkes-Barre along the Susquehanna River. It is the only Pennsylvania municipality incorporated as a town. As of the 2010 census, Bloomsburg had a population of 14,855, with an estimated population of 13,811 in 2019.
The Los Angeles County Fair is an annual county fair. It was first held on October 17, 1922, and ran for five days through October 21, 1922, in a former beet field in Pomona, California. Highlights of the fair's first year were harness racing, chariot races and an airplane wing-walking exhibition. The fair is one of the largest county fairs in the United States. Attendance has topped one million people every year with the exception of three years since 1948, and is the 4th largest fair in the United States. Since its opening year, over 89,000,000 visitors have attended the LA County Fair.
Parx Casino and Racing is a Thoroughbred horse racing venue and the largest casino gaming complex in Pennsylvania. Parx is located in Bensalem Township in Bucks County, northeast of the city of Philadelphia. Owned and operated by Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, Inc., Parx features 24-hour gaming with over 3,200 slot machines, 188 live table games, a poker room with 48 poker tables, live racing and simulcast action, sports betting, several dining options and bars, and the Xcite Center. Parx also offers online gambling and online sports betting along with off-track betting at two locations.
Newbury Racecourse is a racecourse and events venue in the civil parish of Greenham, adjoining the town of Newbury in Berkshire, England. It has courses for flat races and over jumps. It hosts one of Great Britain's 36 annual Group 1 flat races, the Lockinge Stakes.
Royal Randwick Racecourse is a racecourse for horse racing located in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Randwick Racecourse is Crown Land leased to the Australian Turf Club and known to many Sydney racegoers as headquarters. The racecourse is located about six kilometres south-east from the Sydney Central Business District in the suburb of Randwick. The course proper has a circumference of 2224m with a home straight of 410m.
Ottawa SuperEX was an eleven-day annual exhibition that took place every August at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, Ontario. The exhibition provided exhibits, entertainment and amusements indoors in the buildings on site and outdoors on the grounds. The Central Canada Exhibition Association operated a fair annually from 1888 until 2010, except during World War II. The fair was on hiatus due to plans to redevelop Lansdowne Park and the Association continued to work towards finding opportunities to bring back SuperEX. It was announced in December 2015 that the Ottawa SuperEX board had disbanded a year earlier and the Ex would not be returning.
The Ohio State Fair is one of the largest state fairs in the United States, held in Columbus, Ohio during late July through early August. As estimated in a 2011 economic impact study conducted by Saperstein & Associates; the State Fair contributes approximately 68.5 million dollars to the state's economy. In 2023, attendance was 1,006,228, the Fair's highest 12-day attendance on record.
The Illinois State Fair is an annual festival, centering on the theme of agriculture, hosted by the U.S. state of Illinois in the state capital, Springfield. The state fair has been celebrated almost every year since 1853. Currently, the fair is held annually at the Illinois State Fairgrounds over an 11-day period in mid-August of each year.
The Empire Expo Center is an exhibition ground located in Geddes, a suburb of Syracuse, New York. It features eight exhibition halls and 375 acres (1.52 km2) of ground space, which are used year-round for exhibitions and trade fairs.
The Oregon State Fair is the official state fair of the U.S. state of Oregon. It takes place every August–September at the 185-acre (0.75 km2) Oregon State Fairgrounds located in north Salem, the state capital, as it has almost every year since 1862. In 2006, responsibility for running the fair was delegated to the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department, and the division is now known as the Oregon State Fair & Exposition Center (OSFEC), which holds events on the fairgrounds year-round.
The Big Fresno Fair, founded in 1884, is an annual fair held at the Fresno County Fairgrounds. The Big Fresno Fair is managed by the 21st District Agricultural Association, an entity of the California Department of Food and Agriculture Division of Fairs & Expositions. It is the largest annual event in the San Joaquin Valley, attracting around 600,000 people each October during its twelve-day run featuring exhibits, a livestock show, live horse racing, musical entertainment, educational programs and more. The Fair provides a link between urban and rural California, serving as a tool to educate visitors on the region's rich agricultural industry. The mission of The Big Fresno Fair is to "Educate, Celebrate and Have Fun".
Belterra Park, formerly known as River Downs, is a racino located in Anderson Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, just outside the southeast limits of Cincinnati. It is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Boyd Gaming.
The Great Allentown Fair is an annual fair and agricultural show that is held at the Allentown Fairgrounds in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It is operated by the Lehigh County Agricultural Society. It is one of the oldest fairs in the United States, and one of the largest in the state of Pennsylvania.
The Hollywood Casino at The Meadows, formerly The Meadows Racetrack and Casino, originally (1963) just The Meadows horse-racing track, is a Standardbred harness-racing track and slot-machine casino which is located in North Strabane Township, Pennsylvania, United States, about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Pittsburgh. After 44 years as a racetrack, the casino was added in 2007. The real estate has been owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties since 2016, with the business operations owned by Penn Entertainment since 2018, including a long term lease agreement to Gaming and Leisure Properties.
Allentown Fairgrounds is located at 302 North 17th Street in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It hosts the Great Allentown Fair annually in late August and early September.
Harrington Raceway & Casino is a harness racing track and casino located on the fairgrounds of the Delaware State Fair, just south of Harrington, Delaware, 16 miles (26 km) south of Dover. The casino, formerly known as Midway Slots, has over 1,800 slot machines, table games, simulcasting, and sports betting. In addition, the venue promotes and hosts concerts and other similar entertainment revues. Multiple dining options including a buffet are available as well.
Kinney Run, also known as Kinney's Run, is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Scott Township and Bloomsburg, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 3.1 miles (5.0 km) long. Some of the first settlers to the Kinney Run area arrived in 1769. There are a number of wetlands and one bog, which is called the Espy Bog, in the stream's watershed.
The DuQuoin State Fair is an annual festival, centering on the themes of agriculture and country music, hosted by the U.S. state of Illinois on an approximately 1,600 acres (650 ha) fairground site adjacent to the southern Illinois town of Du Quoin. The state fair has been celebrated almost every year since 1923. Currently, the fair is held annually over an 11-day period concluding on Labor Day of each year. However, in 1927, the fair opened on Labor Day.