Fairboard outlines September fair plans, field trips, monster trucks and a $1.5 million statewide capital grant

Fairgrounds staff provided a series of operational updates for the September fair and related programming at the July 21 meeting. Staff said the fair will open with an ice‑cream social on Friday, Sept. 5, and that two nights of Monster Truck events are tentatively scheduled to kick off racetrack programming the Friday and Saturday before the fair. Staff said a Tuesday night MLS match on Sept. 9 works well with fair scheduling and that the fair is piloting a field‑trip program for fifth graders on that Tuesday morning; the program will start small and focus on schools closest to the fairgrounds with space limited to roughly five or six schools this year. Fair staff also reported plans to plan an HBCU day in coordination with Commissioner Owens, working with Tennessee State University and Alabama A&M as part of a community engagement weekend tied to those institutions’ schedules. The fair director told the board that the Tennessee Association of Fairs secured $1,500,000 for capital improvements for county fairs in Tennessee; staff said they are working on council approval language and administrative steps required to accept and allocate those funds when distributed in January. Staff invited board members to fair opening ceremonies and asked partners to continue coordination on programming, permitting and volunteer needs. No formal board action was required on the fair schedule or grant update; staff asked for council approval language to accept the statewide capital funds when that item returns for council consideration.