{"id":1797,"date":"2010-08-08T14:45:33","date_gmt":"2010-08-08T19:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/citings\/?p=1797"},"modified":"2010-08-08T14:45:33","modified_gmt":"2010-08-08T19:45:33","slug":"fair-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2010\/08\/08\/fair-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Fair Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Some<\/a>With the annual state fair season approaching nationwide, the Des Moines Register<\/a> reports on the status of county fairs in Iowa, a rural state where the kids just don’t farm like they used to.<\/p>\n

The challenge:<\/p>\n

Keeping youth engaged in old-fashioned farm fun in the digital age, a time when kids may be more enticed by Farmville on Facebook than by a 4-H project with hogs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, even tech-savvy teens aren’t immune to the lure of tradition:<\/p>\n

Although the Iowa State Fair, which opens Thursday in Des Moines, typically attracts more than a million visitors, the county fairs have survived as an important cultural attraction in part because they are the largest event of the year for many communities, Tucker said.<\/p>\n

Fried foods, giant stuffed teddy bears and bandstand acts connect people across generations who seek an alternative to movies and video games.<\/p>\n

“It’s a unique marriage of entertainment and education,” Tucker said. “There’s a long tradition of people attending fairs with parents, grandparents.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A sociologist interprets:<\/p>\n

In that way, the fairs serve as an extended family reunion, said Paul Lasley, an Iowa State University sociology professor.<\/p>\n

“Fairs have evolved,” Lasley said. “But the basis of social interaction, neighboring, seeing your old friends, that’s still an important part of them.<\/p>\n

“It’s these connections that keep the county fairs going. Connections to the past, but also connections to the future.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But shifting trends in youth participation are impacting more traditional fair activities:<\/p>\n

A decline in Iowa youth participation concerns some because the county fairs make celebrating the accomplishments of children a core part of the mission.<\/p>\n

The number of youth showing livestock at county fairs last year was down 9 percent from 2008, according to Association of Iowa Fairs statistics. The number of youth showing nonlivestock projects was down 3 percent, data showed.<\/p>\n

However, the youths who participated were more active. The number of livestock and nonlivestock exhibits was up slightly in 2009.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Such changes in demographics and participation are prompting some fair organizers to innovate.\u00a0 Marshalltown, Iowa provides one example:<\/p>\n

Polt said few from Marshalltown’s sizable Hispanic population participate, despite the role of county fairs in celebrating a community’s culture and heritage.<\/p>\n

“We have to find avenues of bringing them in and letting them know we want them to be part of our fair,” he said.<\/p>\n

Holding the fair on Sundays would allow Hispanic parents, many of whom work six days a week, to attend on a day traditionally set aside to spend with family, he said.<\/p>\n

“You can’t keep catering to the same old crowd,” he said. “Your crowd’s getting younger. Generations change.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the annual state fair season approaching nationwide, the Des Moines Register reports on the status of county fairs in Iowa, a rural state where the kids just don’t farm like they used to. The challenge: Keeping youth engaged in old-fashioned farm fun in the digital age, a time when kids may be more enticed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[155,39112,641,70,1221,117,100],"class_list":["post-1797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-animals","tag-culture","tag-diversity","tag-family","tag-rural","tag-trends","tag-youth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1797"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1804,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions\/1804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}