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Fair manager Cara Muhlenkamp makes a lap around the fairgrounds on her golf cart during opening day of the 173rd Mercer County Fair.
CELINA - Though the Mercer County Fair gates opened at 8 a.m. Thursday, fair manager Cara Muhlenkamp and her staff were on site preparing for weeks.
Muhlenkamp, 43, has worked at the fair since 2007, first in the office for about five years, then as interim manager for about four months until she was offered the permanent manager role by the Mercer County Fair Board in October of 2012.
Her duties include managing the day-to-day operations at the fairgrounds as well as oversight of the annual fair and other events such as festivals and campouts.
During her tenure, Muhlenkamp has helped the fair attendance figures nearly double from 56,000 in 2012 to 98,000 last year. With all of that growth and excitement, comes a bursting-at-the-seams schedule for her and her staff that seems to have no offseason, she said.
Surprisingly, their busiest days tend to be the days leading up to fair week.
"When you think of all the vendors, and then you have all the entertainers, and then you have your show exhibitors, and then you have the community, and outside of the (local) community, (all) trying to all funnel in at one time to get everything done," she said. "It's just insane."
During fair week, this year Aug. 7-13, Muhlenkamp said she likes to be up, ready and out of her camper - her home for the week - by 7 a.m. At that time, she will do a couple of laps around the grounds in her golf cart, checking for anything out of place, any potential problems and trash of any kind that needs to be thrown away.
"I can do a drive through and see what needs done and kind of get that in place," she said. "(I'm looking for) any issues or checking in with people or (looking for) trash out in the open. I don't like trash. (I'm) thinking ahead for the next day, of what's approaching, and helping plan for that."
By 9:45 a.m. Thursday - opening day - Muhlenkamp was busy and headed to a vendor meeting, which primarily involved the fair's outdoor food vendors. The meeting is held once at the start of fair week, and allows for her to touch base with everyone, answer any questions and hear any concerns.
Muhlenkamp speaks with a vendor after Thursday morning's vendor meeting.
Though she noted that all of the fair's vendors are great to work with and present little to no issues every year, she said the most common problem she runs into is that vendors do not like duplicates.
"They want to be unique, so they can maximize on their exposure," she said. "A vendor isn't going to come back if they're not successful. So we really try to make sure that we take that into consideration. But we also know our numbers are growing, and we're going to have to have some duplicates. We're going to have to have some of those things."
After the brief meeting, Muhlenkamp hopped back on her golf cart and headed for the grandstand, which was a flurry of activity by 10 a.m. as concert stagehands were busy setting up for Thursday and Friday's highly anticipated shows.
The concert series kicked off Thursday night with Journey from the Heart, a Nashville-based band paying tribute to melodic rock titans Journey and Heart.
Big & Rich, the Nashville duo behind mega-hits "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" and "Comin' to Your City," will bring their high-octane, humor-laced brand of country music to the grandstand tonight for what fair staff are calling "the largest concert ever held at the fairgrounds."
Ticket sales were increased this year after all of the seating on the track was removed, marketing and public relations director Rachel Ungruhn said. That area is just standing room only now, with chairs available should someone need one.
Muhlenkamp said on Thursday that there were about 300 tickets left for the Big & Rich show.
Confetti flies as the ribbon is cut at the start of the 173rd Mercer County Fair.
After Muhlenkamp checked in with the talent staff and stagehands at the grandstand, she headed back up to the front gate for the fair's opening ceremony, slated for 11 a.m.
The ceremony is informal, Muhlenkamp noted, but involves the county commissioners, fair staff and fair board members.
Also in attendance was Stacy Beougher, director of the Celina Mercer Chamber of Commerce, who of course supplied a large ribbon along with some even bigger scissors with which to cut it.
"We're grateful for everyone's hand that they have in this, and it is going to be a wonderful week," Muhlenkamp said during the ceremony. "May we be blessed with wonderful weather and happy fairgoers."
Once the ribbon was cut and the confetti was thrown, she and the sheriff's office's Capt. Megan Baker headed back to the grandstand, where they held a brief concert safety meeting with Celina Fire's Chief Brian Davis and Lt. Adam Schroyer.
In the meeting, they touched on the anticipated concert attendance figures and emergency exits and discussed how many first responders would be on scene for the record-breaking shows.
Fair manager Cara Muhlenkamp huddles with Celina Fire's Chief Brian Davis and Lt. Adam Schroyer for a safety meeting regarding Thursday's concert featuring Journey from the Heart.
Muhlenkamp then did one more check in with the concert talent staff and stage hands, and jumped back on her golf cart and was back in her office by about noon.
The rest of her day would be busy with a scheduled staff meeting in the afternoon, last-minute concert prep and putting out any and all fair-related fires to keep the festivities on track.
Though she likes to leave some time in her fair schedule for an occasional bite of fair food and a spot of live music, Muhlenkamp said her very favorite thing about the week is seeing all of the staff's hard work come together.
"Just seeing something that you've worked on coming together, and then when you see those families and those memories being made, that's when it's just like, 'Yeah, this is why we do it,'" she said. "It's the truth. This is what all the hard work is for. As corny as it sounds, that's truthful."
Day two of the Mercer County Fair will kick off today with the gates set to open at 8 a.m. The fairgrounds are located at 1001 W. Market St., Celina. More information can be found at mercercountyohiofair.com.
