To enhance Lincoln County Fair's capacity to host diverse programming by purchasing a stage. A stage would create a performance area outside of the grandstand, allowing for more programming at the fair. Currently, there is not a space for dance performances or performances with multiple singers. The stage would elevate the event to attract attention and allow for greater visibility, but be low enough to allow for audience interaction.
To bring a variety of arts and cultural heritage programming to the Lincoln County Fair. The fair will host live jazz, folk and bluegrass bands, in addition to a clogging performance. A demonstration area will also be created in the Open Class Exhibits Building. In that space, an artist will present on drawing and painting, and attendees can make their own art at the fair with provided supplies.
To promote the preservation of agricultural history, education and diversity at the Ramsey County Fair by showcasing traditional Hmong dances, square dancers, a fife and drum corp, and Agricadabra, a show which featurs agricultural facts and magic.
To construct a multi-purpose building for music, theater, entertainment, and artistic demonstrations. The structure will be designed to enhance the quality of sound and the visibility of the artists who perform on stage for the audience.
To restore several Dakota City building exteriors on the fairgrounds, in collaboration with Dakota City Heritage Village. These local structures that portray a 1900 era rural village include the 1867 Vermillion Presbyterian Church, the belfry of the District 96 one room school, and the 1861 frame structure that was originally built as a school and most recently used as the millinery and dressmaker’s shop.
To increase the Steele County Fair's capacity to showcase children's art by purchasing new display materials. Portable wall panels will allow work to be hung in a gallery type fashion, and offer more surface area to display children's art.
Our legacy project involves two parts. First portion would go to the purchase of four iPads for our Fine Arts/Photography and Agriculture/Horticulture Departments. They would be used for our open class departments for registration, judging, and placements. The second portion would go towards the sound proofing of our Township Square Stage. This is an outdoor performance stage that is used by many varieties of performers: bands, magicians, jugglers, balloon artists, competitions, etc.
Legacy funds will be used for stage rental, demonstrations and a pan drummer entertainer. The demonstrations will include wood turning, done by a foot controlled turner, done in a historical setting complete with costuming. Also included in the demonstration area will be a potter (from the region) who throws clay.
With the Legacy Project, we intend to purchase two wireless microphones to help promote the arts on our stage for the performers. We are also hiring RJ Kerns, to promote photography and explain the history behind the art of taking photos. With the number of exhibitors showing photography, we would like to educate the public on the history of photography and why it is so important and how to improve their skills in exhibiting photos.
A - St. Paul Czech Dancers - they have been at our fair before. They are always a favorite within the Czech ethnic area of this county as well as surrounding counties., B - Larry Novotny "The One-Man Band" - Larry has been entertaining crowds for years. He is multi-talented and plays several instruments. With a love and a skill to play old time music and polka music, he is a crowd pleaser., C - Doug Traxler and the Hired Hands - a very well-known local musician specializing in older folk ballads. He is definitely a hit with the demographics at our fair.
We would like to bring the Red Letter Band to the Lincoln County Fair. The Red Letter Band is a Minnesota-based band. They have the reputation for bringing top-notch musical entertainment to the stage. It is a unique opportunity for the residents of Lincoln County to enjoy high-quality classic country with a professional, big city Nashville sound at no cost. The fair is also hoping to bring Skipping Stones to the fair. They are also Minnesota based and play guitar and sing over 1000 cover tunes and classicals, plus original compositions.
We plan to use this grant to offset costs for our blacksmith demonstrations, and towards the local Minnesota-based musicians we hire for our free stage.
This grant is intended to provide access to cultural music of this area of the state. We are inviting in musical groups for our old-time music afternoon and a special concert in our north entertainment area. These groups include The Concord Singers, The Marv Nissel Band, and the Over-60 band. We are trying to pass on old-time music to younger audiences and keep the tradition of this music as a part of the fair. We also have a fair museum, and the doors are sticking making it difficult for people to get in. This is a controlled environment building so we need to keep the doors closed.
The Educational Heritage Magic Show by Magician Tom Anderson - With period costumes from the 1800's, he will be using magic that would have taken place in the 1800's. Tom is also a balloon artist and will be offering a balloon twisting class. ?Musical performers will also perform at the fair.
We would like to have our local blacksmith's guild members give demonstrations throughout the week of our fair in the blacksmith shop located in our Heritage Village on the fairgrounds. We could get many demonstrators to demonstrate the equipment that we have in our heritage village buildings such as spinning, weaving, quilting, and cooking. We also may have an opportunity to have a threshing demonstration by the local machinery men that meet here in Dakota County. We hope to contract a chainsaw artist and/or the Paul Bunyan Live show to have here the week of the fair.
The chainsaw artist would be able to give many demonstrations throughout the week of the fair. We will contract the Lumberjack show for all seven days of the fair and have lumberjack camps and shows. We will have scheduled three shows a day.
Our project for the legacy grant would be to purchase a new performance stage for our Entertainment Center. Our current stage floor is falling apart and is no longer conducive to our needs. We are in need of a safer and larger stage area that has stairs for those using it. Our current stage doesn't have stairs. This will impact all of our performers and programs we have on this stage during the fair.
Olmsted County Fair offers a free stage featuring all Rochester, MN or southeastern Minnesota-based musical artists every night of the fair. We plan to use funds from the Legacy Grant to help bring these musical and performing artists to our fair. A few of our featured acts this year include bands County Line Drive and The Soul Train.
Hire Ag Inspire for the duration of the 2024 fair: Ag Inspire is a non-profit organization, that creates educational exhibits to teach kids and adults the impact agriculture has on their lives. We also expect to have the ethanol racer and barn displays exhibiting in our new rabbit/poultry barn.
Activity items include a chisel plow shank and shovel.
Hennepin County Fair would like to use their Legacy grant money for the following items: Wood turner demonstration, pottery demonstration, Chuck Perry - musician/magician, and stage rental for musicians.
With the Legacy Project, we intend to use the funds to purchase:
-- "Chalk Animals"- Chalk animals will be a combination of Animals from Plywood cut outs that we paint with chalkboard paint. They will be available around the fairgrounds for kids to use sidewalk chalk to color and embrace their creativity. These will be erasable and reuseable for years to come!
-- Balloon Animal Artist - We will hire Balloons with Kevin, a balloon artist as apart of our Kids Day Program.
A --- Big Ideas Trailer ---- seeing the possibilities and learning about various trades through electronic interaction and one-on-one conversations with instructors.
B --- Doug Traxler and the Hired Hands ---- a very well known local musician specializing in folk ballads and easy listening tunes.
C --- Larry Novotny "The One Man Band" --- long time entertainer for the local area. He is multi-talented and plays many instruments, from old-time music to polka.
The Lincoln County Fair would like to bring a Mobile Sign Shop to the fair. This program is located out of the Twin Cities. They would be on the grounds and connect fairgoers to artist-created, mobile tools that are purpose-built to pique curiosity and prompt interaction. Our local library has agreed to pay for $500 of the cost if we could get them to come during the fair. The Larry Olsen Band, out of Lake Benton, MN, plays polkas, waltzes and other old-time music. We will have them perform in our Rainbow Pavilion (an old dance hall).
Each year we try to highlight some form of the arts that the public may not get to see often. In 2024, we will be featuring a glass blowing demonstration in our Family Zone. The Glass artists do shows demonstrating techniques and create a piece for the audience to see each step off the process. They do multiple shows daily between 10am to 9pm.
RJ Kern's photography shows feature storytelling and agricultural photography and will be coming to our fair this summer. RJ does different shows: Being a National Geographic agricultural photographer; Being a Commemorative Artist for the Minnesota State Fair; The Unchosen Ones: Advice for 4-H Competitors and Life Skills Learned in 4-H; iPhoneography Tips for Your Award-Winning Photography; History of Agricultural Photography 101;
Historical Photography Demonstrations.
To better highlight local talent by making the exhibits of the creative activities more visible and engaging to fair visitors. Funds will be used to improve lighting by upgrading wiring and fixtures, adding electrical hookups to allow spotlights on specific displays, and installing a glass board.
To bring a variety of cultural entertainment to the Waseca County Free Fair, including yodeling, Bluegrass, Irish, Alpine, Czechoslovakian, gospel and Americana music, a vaudeville show, and genealogical information from the Minnesota Historical Society.
To upgrade and replace display cases for 4-H. The Dakota County Agricultural Society has enhanced the display capability for the 4-H program to improve viewing and safety.
To provide programming that tells the story of Dakota County's 160 years of settlement, Minnesota history and cultural traditions, through an entertaining tent show that combines story telling and original music. The show will be reminiscent of the 1900s era Chautauqua programs. It will be performed daily in the tent at Dakota City Heritage Village.
To provide opportunities to Pine County artists to show their talents to the 30,000 attendees of the Pine County Fair. Funds will cover 30 hours of arts programming, consisting of demonstrations and workshops, and 30 hours of music by local musicians. Additionally, a sun shade will be purchased to encourage visitors to stay for programming.
To construct a portable stage that can be used for arts, cultural heritage, and Minnesota history programming at different fairground locations, and to commission a local artist to paint a mural depicting fair related activities.
To improve lighting in the the building that houses horticulture and FFA projects at the Dodge County Free Fair. Funds will also be used to construct a mobility ramp, allowing fairgoers with mobility restrictions to access exhibits showcasing local work.
To offer aspects of Minnesota’s heritage that fairgoers normally would not be able to enjoy. The Hennepin County Fair offered performances and demonstrations in storytelling, clogging, old time string music, blacksmith, potter, dog sled, textile creation, knitting, weaving and wood carving. The storyteller, Bob Gasch, told and acted out stories about Minnesota’s settlement period including Johnny Appleseed, and more and the cloggers demonstrated a historical style of dance from the early settlement of Minnesota.
To offer several demonstrations throughout the fair to educate fairgoers on key parts of Minnesota’s history and how these aspects contributed to the economic and agricultural status of the state. Programming will include a lumberjack show and the Iron Will dog sled exhibit.
To host a variety of arts and cultural heritage activities at the Hennepin County Fair, and enhance the display area for fine arts exhibits. The fair will host a bluegrass band, a MN original singer/songwriter, a storyteller, and a variety of arts demonstrations.
To create a Historic Structures Report (HSR), a specialized study that provides documentary information about a historic property's significance, history of use, and current condition. It will be an early step in preservation planning, that considers goals for a structure's use, significant features, and outlines a recommended course of treatment and scope of work for repair and restoration.
The project will develop and install an educational exhibit on the history and significance of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Olmsted County and throughout MN. As the regional headquarters of both of these depression-era economic programs, the Olmsted County Fairgrounds was integral to their local activities and played a role in the development of agricultural and civic infrastructure that continued to serve southeastern MN for decades.
To provide heritage music and arts programming for school age children at the fair. The Houston County Fair enhanced their sound system and introduced a Polka band. The objective of this project is to enhance the arts with the involvement of the youth and preserve the history of the fair.
