Statewide Iowa — The 2022 Iowa State Fair starts Thursday, August 11th.
Gary Slater, the fair’s CEO and general manager, says the organization is still recovering financially from the cancellation of the 2020 fair due to the pandemic.
The State Fair lost thirteen million dollars when the event was cancelled in 2020, but qualified for an eleven million dollar “shuttered venues” grant from the federal government.
Events are held at the fairgrounds in every month of the year and the Fair has nearly sixty year round full-time staff members. Attendance was down a bit during last year’s Iowa State Fair, but the eleven day run of the 2021 State Fair turned a thirty-six million dollar profit.
Slater made his comments during an appearance this summer on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS. Slater has said Grandstand entertainment is key to drawing crowds and more than ten thousand tickets have been sold for country star Carrie Underwood’s show on the final night of the fair.
