By Robert Williams

Editor

The Becker County Fair executive committee of Travis Schauer, Casey Christensen and Karla Lindquist reported on the fair to the Becker County Board of Commissioners Tuesday, Dec. 12, including a number of hurdles that were overcome to pull off this year’s event.

“There was a lot of stress going into the 2025 fair with road construction, the gymnastics building (construction),” said Fair Manager Travis Schauer. “There were a lot of unknown, tricky days, the East Otter Tail Fair and when all was said and done it was way above expectations. It really was a good fair. It wasn’t our best fair by any means, but it was good.”

With no gate fees, the board gauges the success of fairs by money brought in by the fair’s ticketed items and grandstand events, like the carnival, demo derbies and the rodeo.

“Those are our income for the year; that’s basically it,” Schauer said. 

Schauer also noted one of the biggest misconceptions about the fair is that it makes a lot of money.

“Our goal is if we break the fair event that’s good,” he said.

Schauer also highlighted that the fair was able to replace and install $100,000 of new bleachers in 2024 without dipping into savings.

“That’s all paid,” he said. “Did the fair make money? No, break even at best, but we didn’t have to dive into the CDs, which is a home run in my opinion.”

The bleacher project was spread out over two years which allowed fair proceeds to be used to pay for work in 2024 prior to finalizing the project in 2025.

“The delay in getting the bleachers there was a huge benefit for us because it allowed us to put it in two different fairs,” said Lindquist.

Schauer was also complimentary of the Sheriff’s department and its willingness to have a presence at the fairs.

“We haven’t had any issues with those guys walking around,” said Schauer. “We want to thank  him a lot for doing that and for being at the derbies. The derbies run a lot better when there is some law enforcement there. It takes a community to put the fair on; we’re just 14 people that kind of manage it a bit. We ask a lot of help from a lot of people and we get it.”

The next big improvement to the fairgrounds is the horse barn including structural improvements, including a new roof.