Melissa Harris-Perry: It's MHP and you're back with The Takeaway. Now, like a lot of Americans, I need my annual fix of Ferris wheels, pig races, local bands, and deep ride, everything, which is why in early October, my family and I took a little time at the Carolina Classic Fair.
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Melissa Harris-Perry: How did county fairs become an American staple? Well, back in 1811, the first American County Fair was mainly a cattle show. Farmers in New England used the livestock shows to build community with other farmers and to educate outsiders. Today, fairs remain a great place to showcase the hard work of agriculture and domestic arts. If you're a political candidate, then you know you sure better get yourself right on over to the county fair to meet the voters. Marla Calico is president and CEO of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions. Welcome to The Takeaway, Marla.
Marla Calico: Hi, Melissa. It's really a joy to be here and I loved your opening. Carolina Classic is one of my favorite fairs.
Melissa Harris-Perry: I have been going for a couple of decades. I really do love that fair. My husband and I were mentioning as we were walking around that it's one of the few times that we see so many people of so many different kinds of backgrounds, of all different ages. Why does the fair draw us in that way?
Marla Calico: It is a singular community institution, and the cool thing about it is that the fair represents that particular community. For example, you could go to the Robeson County Fair in a different part of North Carolina and it's going to be reflective of that community. It's something about that reunion, it is something about coming together to celebrate us. Your folks took you to the fair when you were little, and then maybe when you were grown, you didn't come back for a while, but there was something that was drawing you back and you wanted that experience perhaps for your children. We see that cycle over and over and over again for well over 200 years.
Melissa Harris-Perry: All right. Let's go back 200 years for a moment and tell me why the fairs started.
Marla Calico: Agricultural fairs had actually existed and still do exist today in, for example, the United Kingdom, but they were a different type of gathering. They were more for the landed gentry. Elkanah Watson, who was that gentleman in 1811 who brought his oxen down to the square in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he was actually creating a different model. He had imported Merino sheep because he wanted the United States to be self-sufficient in wool production.
One of the things was that we've got to be talking neighbor to neighbors. He took his sheep down, he took his oxen down, and we have recorded records at that first fair, they were giving, I think a total of $70 for the all of the prizes combined, but they were recognizing the top pair of oxen, the sheep, the pigs, and of course, if you're going to bring people together, they had amusements, they had something called a [unintelligible 00:03:12], which is some an example of an early amusement ride. They had food, of course, and it became an annual celebration.
Melissa Harris-Perry: I love this language of coming together. It is communal, but I'll say it's also highly competitive. How much does that drive?
Marla Calico: There's a reason for that in agriculture because you want to say, "Hey, if somebody else has got a better cow or a better sheep or a better pig, let's get together," because it's all about improving genetics and making production better. We recognize, for example, the best corn and we want to understand how that corn came to be so that we can learn how to do more. That's the story of how agriculture has come to be, to feed this growing world that we have today.
I think that competition, now that, again, across the country, across the world, it's not just the animals, which remain a critical purpose for improving agriculture, for improving the genetics of breeds, but also, for the young people, it becomes a matter of leadership development because you just don't walk into that show room. That takes months and months of learning about the animal, working with that animal, grooming, feeding it, taking care of it with the utmost care. Those are life lessons that stay with you regardless of whether you remain a farmer or you become a banker or a lawyer or a nurse.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, are fairs the right place or a good place for candidates at the state and local level to be meeting their constituents?
Marla Calico: A friend of mine who manages a fair in Washington said this, "When people come to the fair, they leave their troubles at the gate." They walk into the fair with this mindset of reception, that they're open to the wonder around them. I think from those people who are out there and wanting to serve their communities in an elected office, it's a perfect opportunity to meet the voters, to meet them face-to-face, to hope what we have are rational conversations where we listen to one another.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Let's talk about the business of the fairs, talk to me about how they affect the communities relative to the economy where they're held.
Marla Calico: It's people within the community who come together. First of all, they in cooperation, through time immemorial, with either the government or with individuals have come together to build the fairgrounds. That has to be maintained and ready for each and every fair. You begin to pull in all of the elements. The fair will make an agreement with, for example, the Carnival Company, the mobile amusement operator.
The mobile amusement operator is a totally different business that pays either a percentage or a flat fee of their takings to the fair for the privilege of being there. The fair takes that money. The fair also has a stream of revenue from ticket sales, they have a stream of revenue from selling, for example, footage space to the person selling those deep fried Oreos, they also have a stream of revenue from sponsors, businesses, and individuals within the community who may want, from a commercial perspective, to have their name out there in front of the community.
Many fairs also turn around and support their community through giving away of scholarships, for example, to young people. Throughout all of this, and this is woven throughout the operations of the 10 or 12-day fair as well as the entire year, there are wages being paid, there are purchases being made within the community. The economic impact that a fair by virtue of its operations makes just for that one annual event is significant. It runs into the millions in some of the larger areas and the larger metropolitan type of fairs.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Is there a vision for what the future of the fairs will look like?
Marla Calico: Think about how our country has changed in the last 200 years. The fairs are a constant, but they are constantly changing. They're finding new ways to bring that community back together, whether it's new entertainment or bringing back an old type of entertainment. I think the future, it's always on the mind of the folks, those good folks, those board members, those volunteers, those professional staff members at the fair, they want to ensure a future to know that the fair will be there long past the time that they are.
We know for a fact that fairs change lives, and sometimes the smallest of ways, in your case, to create a memory that makes you want to celebrate, that makes you want to pass it on to your children. It's that opportunity to walk into a show ring and instead of getting first place, your heifer lays down in the ring and you get last place and you learn how to do better. The bottom line for me is that fairs change lives and it is their intent to continue to do that for generations to come.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Marla Calico is the president and CEO of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions. Marla, thank you so much for coming on The Takeaway.
Marla Calico: Thank you. I've loved this very much.
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