Scenes from Kern County Fair, Bakersfield, Calif.
Kern County Fair, Bakersfield, Calif., turned 100 in 2016. This year’s fair saw 419,686 guests pass through its gate. That turnout is four percent higher than 2015’s 405,463 attendees.
“I think the increase can be attributed to our celebrating our 100th birthday,” said Michael Olcott, Kern County Fair CEO. “Kern County Fair started in 1916. Our theme this year was ‘100 Years of Fun’ and the people really took to participating in the milestone. We also had fireworks, increased entertainment, new food vendors and great weather, which helped boost the numbers.”
Livestock was up this year, as were exhibits. “Everybody wanted to participate this year,” said Olcott. There were 8,659 entries in the exhibit halls.
Kern County Fair also added a couple of different rodeos this year; the Extreme Rodeo and the Fiesta Rodeo. “The rodeos were hard ticket sales,” said Olcott. “We held one each weekend.” The Extreme Rodeo was $5 and the Fiesta Rodeo was $10. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeo was brought back from last year and cost $12-$15. “All the rodeos were very well attended and we definitely increased rodeo attendance over 2015.”
Giving back to community is a mandate of the Kern County Fair. They have been running their “Feed the Need” program since 2012. “The Feed the Need concept is a partnership with the Community Action Partnership of Kern (CAPK), which is a local food bank,” explained Olcott. “Its goal is to make sure there is food available for people with food insecurities.”
Kern County Fair designated one day as ‘canned food day’ and offered free admission to anyone who brought four cans of food with them as a donation. “Canned food day was a huge success,” he said. “We had a huge increase in canned food donations this year; we were up 18 percent in canned food donations from last year. We had lines way down the street for a quarter of a mile. It was a good ‘feel good’ and the guests were more than happy to join in and help their neighbors. People were smiling and happy to give and happy to come into the fair this way.”
In fact, 53,985 lbs. of food was collected and given to CAPK. Olcott said that many families partook in canned food day and each family member showed up with four cans. “We loved seeing whole families joining in on the donation process; mothers and fathers showing their kids that everyone needs some help once in a while and that it feels good to give.”
Normal entrance fees were $10 dollars for adults, $5 for kids, $9 for seniors, and free for active military members.
Kern County Fair's livestock auction had 3,454 animals on display this year. Animals included cows, pigs, sheep, goats, poultry, rabbits, horses and alpacas. “Kern County Fair is the largest livestock show in the state of California,” said Olcott.
This year’s auction raised approximately $2,900,000 and was up four percent from 2015. In another example of giving back to the community, Olcott pointed out that this year a special buyer, buyer #9, came in and bought around $1.5 million worth of the junior exhibitors' animals and then turned around and donated all of it to CAPK. “That meant 160,000 pounds of meat went to the food bank and will feed 100,000 families in Kern County.”
Another example of how Kern County Fair prioritizes giving back to the community is their ‘Pint for a Pass’ free pass into the park incentive. “The way this works is that if you donate a pint of blood you get a pass to get into the fair for free,” said Olcott. The donated blood all goes to Houchin Blood Bank. “This year we generated 5,000 pints of blood, which was up about 500 pints from 2015.” The blood is collected at the Houchin Blood Bank in the weeks leading up to the fair.
Also community-minded was the quilt contest. Thirty-six quilts were entered and all 36 went to the Lauren Small Children’s Medical Center at Memorial Hospital. “We ask the community to bring their quilts to the fair,” said Olcott. “They’re judged, we award first, second and third place; they get ribbons and then all the quilts are donated to the Children’s Medical Center where they are handed out to kids who have cancer or serious diseases. It’s a tearjerker.”
Also new to the fair this year was the Wild Egypt exhibit; a shark exhibit; High Dive and trick dogs.
Carnival sales for Butler Amusements were up three percent. Concessions were up 7.56 percent. “We had huge attendance the last week of the fair; mostly because we had great weather,” he said. “It was 80 degrees and that brings out the crowds. It also fell over a payday and I’m sure that helped, too.”
Butler Amusements' Wave Swinger
New rides included Balloon Samba and Inversion. “The new rides were a big hit,” said Olcott. The most popular rides were Inversion, Dizzy Dragons, Viper and Vertigo. Olcott said that 20 percent of the fair revenue comes from the carnival.
New in concessions were a pretzel vendor and a new BBQ area. “We don’t usually have a whole lot of new foods at our fair because we have 17 nonprofits that have permanent booths on the fairgrounds, which is about half of the concessions booths,” said Olcott. The Basque Club, Kern County Firemen, DeMolay, Teen Challenge and the Boy Scouts are just some of the 17 nonprofits that open each year for the fair. Olcott said the fair gets 20 percent of the nonprofit concession revenue and the nonprofit gets the other 80 percent. “It’s another way of giving back to the community,” he said.
Physical improvements on the fairgrounds included upgrading the Wifi and internet capabilities, new grass, building improvements and adding 1,000 seats to the Bud Pavilion grandstand. “We added an app this year, which was great,” said Olcott. “It really helped with exhibit times and things like that. We also added geo filters for our Snapchat and a lot of people loved that. We had a lot of social media presence this year.”
Entertainment included Clay Walker, Dustin Lynch, King & Country, Boys II Men and Hispanic band La Bandononona Clave Nueva. All the concerts were free.
“It was a great fair this year,” concluded Olcott. “I’m happy we could give so much back to our community and that everyone was able to come and enjoy our fair this year.”
Interviewed for this story: Michael Olcott, (661) 833-4900