PLACERVILLE . INFO

Cotton candy, Ferris wheels, blue-ribbon cakes and 4-Hers thronging in barns can mean only one thing: It's fair time!

For four days, youths will feel the rush of a zero-gravity carnival ride, nonprofit and commercial vendors will hear sales ringing up, children will see the wonders of animals giving birth and all will smell and may taste the funnel cakes.

But four days of joyful, tearful, excited and pleasantly tired fairgoers are not enough for we El Dorado County Fair staffers. We want more events and more people at the fairgrounds.

And so we plan for it, all year long.

Unlike many fairgrounds across the nation whose sole event is the county fair, the El Dorado fairgrounds hosts year-round events and generates revenue that directly impact El Dorado County and the surrounding communities.

For instance, in 2005, the fair hosted 599 event days with 197,000 people in attendance; the four-day county fair that year drew an additional 65,000 people to events and activities.

Event attendees paid for 1,049 room nights at local hotels, ate in local restaurants, purchased food and other goods or participated in recreational events in the county.

The gathering of products and services, buyers and sellers in one place is exactly why fairs were established, and is what drives the fair today.

County fairs evolved from a need to bring together numerous vendors and buyers from areas far and wide. Located along major trade or pilgrimage routes, fairs and festivals provided opportunities for people to demonstrate their skills and crafts, exchange ideas and barter for goods.

But maintaining facilities so that community groups, vendors and organizations can connect with clients, residents and visitors is increasingly challenging in light of decreasing funding.

The El Dorado County Fair is a nonprofit organization. We do not receive tax revenue, and so to remain a viable community facility, we must look beyond the four-day fair for revenue.

This need for fairs to find other revenue sources has become increasingly critical in recent years due to decreasing funds from parimutuel betting, or horse racing.

Fairs across North America were built and funded with the income from horse racing starting in the 1930s. But this income stream failed to keep pace with the high inflation rates of the 1970s, and so most fairs -- like El Dorado County's, began closing the gap by expanding their year-round facility use.

Adding to the decline in parimutuel funds is the increase in competition from the state's booming tribal gaming industry. Racing income continues to slip away and may soon disappear because people gamble at these facilities rather than at horse races. And less horse racing means less money for all fairs.

We are continually challenged to search for grants and other funding that will pay for upgrading and replacing aging facilities or maintaining and even enhancing the grounds.

Fairgrounds operating as a business has become a necessary trend across the nation. This shift has forced some fair administrators -- who historically have not needed business degrees or business experience to manage fairgrounds -- to rethink what the fairgrounds can mean to a community.

Some fairgrounds continue to host only the county fair, and so the community must rely upon other facilities for events. The El Dorado County Fair Board, however, made a choice to be a community partner, serving any way we can.

One such community partnership event that we recently established is called the Festival of Trees, which enables nonprofit organizations to raise funds. Every November, organizations decorate Christmas trees, and we auction them off at our crab feed. They keep every dime from the auction, which for smaller organizations, can be a significant source of income.

Whether renting facilities for weddings, reunions, birthday parties or community fundraisers or providing space for sheriff training, food bank distribution and emergency housing, all revenues are applied toward fairground needs. And as a nonprofit, our needs are many.

Luckily, the county fairgrounds are centrally located and easily accessible in Placerville -- a key factor for drawing local business and community organizations -- and also close to recreational opportunities, which is attractive to out-of-towners.

Regional business groups have found the rental rates reasonable, access is great and the community is inviting and enthusiastic to visitors, according to feedback we've received.

And even locals know the important role the fairgrounds play. Whether groups are speed-walking across the grounds, or we're hosting a wedding or family reunion, we're seen as a valuable part of our community.

We certainly will continue to play an important role in the social and economic lives of rural communities and will always provide a means of learning about and appreciating rural and agricultural lifestyles.

But now, we're also business-savvy and as fun as any county fair -- all year round.