"If you're yearning for the good old days, just turn the air conditioning off." ~ Griff Niblack, Indianapolis News
Fairs Year-round Information	F.Y.I. Volume 7, Issue 17 August 15, 1997

Recycle It!

Nancy Strauss, the recycling specialist at Del Mar Fair, has more valuable money-saving — and potentially money-making — recycling tips you can put into action at your fair. Her topic this week is composting:

How’s your recycling program going? Del Mar Fair’s still has room for improvement as we work toward our goal of “zero waste.” One area that holds lots of promise for us is composting.

Composting is a great way to handle our biodegradable waste, such as animal bedding, tree and landscape trimmings, paper and food waste. Although we don’t have space on-site to operate our own compost facility, we’ve been successful in finding local companies that will take our greenwaste, for a small fee or free.

Recently, I visited a composting company and came to appreciate the advantages of composting. The composter’s expertise allows us to divert our waste from the landfill and, under stringent regulations the composter turns the material into a reusable product — in our case, a soil amendment.

Buying back the compost from the composter helps support the company and ensures we’ll have a place to recycle our greenwaste in the future. Check with your city or county — some even offer finished compost to residents for free. Recycling compost materials is an easy way to help beautify your community.

While working with compost, I’ve also learned a number of advantages compost has over chemical fertilizers. The humus slowly releases fertilizer, so it’s less likely to burn or over fertilize your prized plants. Compost also seems to have a longer-lasting fertilizing benefit to our plants, while helping to retain moisture at the same time. This saves us time and water, as we don’t have to water as often.

If you don’t already separate your greenwaste or apply it to your landscaping, you may want to discuss alternatives with your local composter. It could save you money at the landfill or in trash-hauling services. This is just one more way we all can reduce, reuse and recycle!

Under Nancy’s guidance, the Del Mar Fair has developed a successful series of innovative ways to recycle everything from cardboard to stall bedding. In 1996, the fair had a savings of $232,972 in dump fees alone. For more information about recycling at your fair, contact Nancy at 619/792-4218.

Come take a look, meet the staff, and watch the presses in action during the CARF Print Shop’s open house:
Wednesday, August 27
Noon ~ 3 p.m.
1805 Tribute Road, Suite A

The first 10 guests to stop by will win free personalized stationery. Make sure you register for other great prizes, too. (Winners will be announced at the WFA State Fair Reception at 6 p.m.)

Have questions? Need directions? Want a price quote for an upcoming printing project?
Call Bernice Dent at 916/263-3346.

California fair attendance soared in July, with food and carnival revenues keeping pace at comparable levels. In addition, fair-perfect summer weather continues to provide the ideal backdrop.

Orange County Fair reports a 15 percent increase in paid attendance. According to CEO Becky Bailey-Findley, “A combination of the upswing in the local economy, plus a very strong theme that really seemed to hit a chord in people, and an array of new attractions and special exhibits brought in the crowds.

The theme, “We’re Going Tropical,” a salute to fish, fruits and nuts, was evident throughout the grounds — even carnival workers and concessionaires joined fair staff by wearing spirited Hawaiian shirts and flower leis.

David Massa, CEO of the Mother Lode Fair, attributes his fair’s 27 percent increase in part to a change of days and hours. The four-day fair was expanded to five days, and to avoid the heat of the day, the fair opened at 4 p.m. each afternoon. As in previous years, carnival rides were free with paid attendance.

A three-year trend of declining attendances came to a screeching halt at the Sonoma County Fair — paid attendance this year was up 8 percent. (Last year the fair ran day-to-day with the Olympics in Atlanta.) Fair officials cite the good weather, excellent entertainment and lack of Olympic competition as contributing factors to both fair and live horse racing increases.

Twenty-six fairs have supplied F.Y.I. with their paid attendance tallies:

• 1997: 2,841,559 visitors
• 1996: 2,795,707 visitors
• Total: +45,852 +1.64%

Something New! Instead of phoning for your fair’s total paid attendance number this year, we’re faxing a brief form for you to fill out. In addition to your attendance, we hope you’ll take a minute to jot down some of your fair’s highlights for us to share in an upcoming issue of F.Y.I. Thanks!

And if it doesn’t, just let Graeme Stewart, the program buyer, know. He’ll keep an eye out for what you need while on his weekly buying trips. In the last few months, the warehouse has held everything from rope to refrigerators to American flags. Here’s a list of items currently on hand:

• Connex-type storage buildings - approximately 6' x 8' with roof vent. Ideal for storing hazardous materials. Four available
• Shade cloth - approximately 85 percent shade; approximately 28' x 32' hexagon in size.
• 4" PVC pipe
• Flatbed trailer - 4' x 10' x 29" high. Makes tasks such as moving tables, chairs and trash cans quicker and easier

For more information on these and other great buys, or if you'd like to arrange a tour of the South Sacramento surplus warehouse or accompany the buyer on a visit to a surplus yard, call Graeme Stewart at 916/765-3673.

Please Note: CFSA's Surplus Purchasing Program is only authorized to obtain surplus property for California's fairs.

The horses are out of the gate and handle tallies continue to be encouraging. Here’s how this year’s handle adds up after the Sonoma County Fair, the fourth stop on the summer circuit:

• 1996 on-track: $20,535,641
• 1997 on-track: $20,172,177
• Down: -1.76%

• 1996 Northern California off-track: $65,730,729
• 1997 Northern California off-track: $66,441,843
• Up: +1.08%

• 1996 Network total: $86,266,371
• 1997 Network total: $86,614,023
• Up: +.40%

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F.Y.I. invites and encourages all fairs to contribute articles and article ideas for the Fair Exchange column. We’ll even write the article for you. For details, call Melissa Thurber at 916/263-6178 or Joan Bartosik at 916/663-9256.
To add F.Y.I. to your press release mailing list, send or fax releases to:

1776 Tribute Road, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95815
Attn: Melissa Thurber
Fax: 916/646-1238