The Monroe County Fair has come and gone once again, with this proving to be yet another successful year, tempered a tad by intense summer heat and some stormy weather.

Monroe County Fair Association President Don Schrader offered a generally positive review of the 2023 fair, noting that the biggest obstacle over the past week was heat and rain.

“Fair week was very good,” Schrader said. “We had good entries in all classes – some were up quite a bit, others were about equal. The shows were good. Livestock shows and everything went very well. I would say Mother Nature was the biggest problem dealing with the extreme heat we had for a couple days.”

Schrader spoke about how the fair had effectively opened and closed with storm issues. An evening thunderstorm warning – which proved to be a false alarm – the first Sunday of the fair forced the Monroe County Fair Queen and Little Miss pageants to migrate to the Waterloo High School auditorium. Harsh rain and winds late Saturday afternoon led to the cancellation of a large tractor pull as well.

The Saturday storm also caused one of the fun house carnival attractions at the fairgrounds to overturn while also shifting other rides in such a way that they were not opened again for Sunday.

Beyond the carnival ride damage, Schrader said the storm had little impact with no injuries on the fairgrounds, though he did lament the cancellation of the tractor pull  which he previously suggested could have been the biggest pull in the state over the weekend.

“It just came at a very bad time,” Schrader said. “We wanted to try to push the mud off the track and try to have the pull yet, but it kept raining and it just got to a point where the pullers wanted to get going and didn’t want to wait around.”

He went on to explain that rescheduling or other such workarounds simply wouldn’t have been possible, as many of the participants are traveling a multi-state pulling circuit and needed to stay on schedule.

The exceptional heat throughout much of the week was also unfortunate for this year’s fair, with the typical top-drawing event – Friday’s demolition derby – plagued by temperatures above 100 degrees at the start.

Schrader said he suspects the more-than-muggy weather as the reason attendance didn’t break any records as it has during the past few fairs.

“This was not a record-breaking year with attendance,” Schrader said. “We were down. I’m thinking the main reason for being down with attendance was the extreme heat.”

While turnout was still generally good – last Wednesday’s Figure 8 race packed the grandstands – the lower overall attendance was noticed among the food and beer stands during the week, who saw reduced sales across the board.

Attendance might have been slightly hampered, but Schrader still spoke positively about much of the rest of the fair – including the exceptional turnout for this year’s livestock showings.

He specifically mentioned the poultry showcase, which made a triumphant return following an absence last year due to an outbreak of avian flu.

“We came back with a poultry show again where last year we couldn’t have any poultry because of the bird flu situation, and we came back with over 400 entries in the poultry division,” Schrader said. “Things were very good as far as entries go in all our divisions.”

The 4-H and FFA Market Animal Auction held Thursday evening was also quite successful, with sales totaling around $235,000. That was a record total and smashes last year’s sales which reached just over $175,000.

The motor sports events also saw respectable, greater than usual participation, with 85 cars at the demo derby and 83 for the Figure 8 Race.

The 2023 fair closed with FFA Fun Night, which Red Bud won for the fourth straight year. 

Schrader also made mention of the strong fine arts showing as well as the model train set-up in the commercial building which proved to be a solid attraction once again.

Winding down from fair week, Schrader and the rest of the fair board are already looking to organize next year’s county fair.

“Attendance was down due to Mother Nature basically, but it’s not gonna keep us back from doing another good fair next year,” Schrader said. “We’ll be back.”

Throughout the week, locals at the fair were bound to have noticed 2023 Monroe County Fair Queen Jada Voelker and Little Miss Monroe County Mila Acock, whether they were handing out trophies and ribbons at the livestock showings or cruising around in their regal John Deere Gator.

Both Voelker and Acock voiced their enjoyment of the week – though they were understandably tired given the many hours spent in the extreme heat.

The hot, breezeless auction was especially painful for both of them.

“It was a long week, but I enjoyed it,” Voelker said.

Acock was rather new to much of the fair, though she luckily had fair veteran Voelker beside her through all the swine showing and car crashing.

“It was amazing,” Acock said. “I loved every little bit of it, and I was pretty sad when it was over Sunday night.”

The two seemed to have gotten quite close over the week, with Acock noting how fun it was to be able to see Voelker participate in the swine showcase and Voelker mentioning how she discovered their mutual love of both sushi and root beer.

“She’s so nice,” Acock said. “She’s amazing. The best fair queen I could have.”

While their first and busiest week is behind them, the duo are both looking forward to seeing more of each other over the next year as they make appearances at parades and other events throughout the county.

“Even though fair week is definitely the highlight of my year, especially, I’m looking forward to all the parades with the Little Miss, and I’m especially looking forward to the state pageant,” Voelker said. “We’re already starting to look at dresses and go shopping for that, so it should be a blast.”