By VERNON ROBISON
The Clark County Fair and Rodeo is right around the corner. Plans are being carried out, preparations being made and folks from all over are getting excited to attend this year’s event.
Even so, there are always the naysayers. Every year – either before the Fair, after, or both – a relative few pick up the megaphone of social media and broadcast all that they do NOT like about the Fair.
The complaints seem to go in every direction: too many people, not enough people; too windy, too rainy, too sunny; too many of the same exhibits, not enough exhibits; the rodeo is over-blown, the rodeo isn’t enough; and the list goes on and on. There is sometimes even talk that the Clark County Fair ought to be pulled up by the roots and planted somewhere else in the county: like urban Las Vegas (heaven forbid).
But always present in all this hub-bub, is the complaint about the Fair being too expensive. The implication (sometimes only hinted at, and other times actually stated explicitly) is that it’s all about the money. The message seems to be, ‘that greedy, no-good Fair Board is just all about maximizing profits and not about families and community!’
To hear all of this negative social media traffic, you’d think that the Fair was somehow failing. In fact, one might even think that Moapa Valley’s big annual event is deeply unpopular and even resented among local residents, as well as folks throughout the region.
But let me say now – about a month out ahead of the Fair and before this type of whining begins – that this is simply not true!
Just last year, Clark County conducted a survey asking eight questions about the Fair. Nearly 1,400 people responded to the survey. That number has plenty of statistical validity to yield reliable data.
So what did this survey find? It found that the Fair is actually tremendously popular. It found that attendees overwhelmingly love it and that they return to it again and again and again.
For example, the first question in the survey was: ‘How many years have you attended the Fair?’. Nearly 50 percent of respondents said they had attended 16 or more years! More than 80 percent of them said they had attended for more than five years.
About 84 percent of those who responded said that they typically attend more than one day at the Fair.
The top response to the question ‘Who do you attend the Fair with?’ was ‘Family.’
The reasons respondents gave for coming to the Fair were across the board. The top response was food vendors getting 1,273 votes. But right behind that was the Livestock Exhibits (1,212), Rodeo (1,210), Youth programs like FFA, CCJLA and 4H (1,153), Entertainment (1,059), Fine Arts (1,032) and Carnival (927). It was clear that the Fair is firing on all cylinders for its attendees.
More than 95 percent of respondents said that the Fair has a positive impact on the community.
Ninety-seven percent answered ‘yes’ to the question: ‘Overall do you enjoy the Fair?’.
The survey even talked about pricing. Nearly 60 percent said that admission to the Fair was ‘Just Right.’ Seventy-three percent said the same about the Rodeo. Even food vendors got a pass with about 55 percent saying they were priced just right. The only category that saw the numbers turn around was the carnival where about 50 percent said the pricing was too high. Even so, 36 percent said it was just fine.
All of this provides strong data that indicates that a person shouldn’t always believe the rants that are voiced on social media. The Clark County Fair is an incredible success and a tremendous benefit to the Moapa Valley community. That is a fact, no matter what the social media detractors say.
What is at the heart of this success? It is the community! It is the overwhelming support of countless volunteers who come forward, pitch in and move things ahead, through good times and bad, year after year. Why do they do it? Because they love their community and they love the Fair; plain and simple.
Is the governing board of the Fair really jacking up prices just so that they can engorge themselves greedily on the profits? That idea is utterly preposterous! The board members all serve as community volunteers. For those who may not be familiar with that term, the word volunteer means “acting or done of one’s own free will without valuable consideration or legal obligation.” In other words: THEY DON’T GET PAID for the huge amount of work they put in for this major event.
Rather than fault-finding, maybe folks should look at the general financial conditions out there in our economy to discover the cause of increasing Fair prices. Inflation has hit all around us: in the grocery store, the auto shop, the insurance agency, the car dealership, the movie theater, the restaurant, the airline industry and everywhere else. Why would we ever think that inflation wouldn’t also affect fair admissions too?
But even with rising prices, the Clark County Fair and Rodeo is still one of the best values in family entertainment that a person can get. Try pricing out a day at Disneyland….or even a couple of hours at the movies, these days! You won’t get those things for the cost of all day fun and entertainment at the Fair.
I proudly join the tens of thousands of people who are looking forward to attending this year’s event.
I love the Fair, just how it is, and just where it is. This is an event that would never be as successful if it were held anywhere else, or under any other type of leadership.
For nearly sixty years now, the Fair has highlighted and demonstrated what a small, rural community can do when folks pull together for a common purpose. It has shown that year after year.
I am convinced that this community is the real magic behind its success. And I for one, hope it will always stay that way.
