Poultry, rabbits, kiddie land, carnival games — the Kalamazoo County Fair opens Tuesday at the Kalamazoo County Expo Center. Mandy Eldred, facility and event services manager for Kalamazoo County Parks and Expo Center, joins Cara Lieurance to preview what's in store.
Eldred, who has worked for the county for 17 years, oversees the Expo Center's roughly 60,000 square feet of floor space and 120 acres of grounds year-round, hosting everything from dog shows to reptile expos, craft fairs to car shows. The Kalamazoo County Fair is five days long, starting Tuesday, Aug 4.
The fair's first two days are dedicated to 4-H livestock and exhibit judging, when kids show off pigs, rabbits, poultry, sheep, goats, steer, feeder calves and horses after months of raising and training them. "The ultimate end goal is that they get to bring them to fair and show them," Eldred says, adding that they coordinate with 4-H to handle the shows themselves while her staff preps and sanitizes the spaces for animals and visitors.
Starting Thursday, hours expand to 9 a.m.–7 p.m. and the fair adds three touring entertainment acts, each performing multiple times a day for a total of eight shows daily: an aerial and acrobatics act with a "wheel of danger" and performing dogs, a dinosaur-and-caveman family show with life-sized dinosaur puppets, and a foam-filled audience-participation game show. All three are included with general admission. Saturday night closes with the Flying Star Rodeo at 7 p.m., featuring bull riding, bronc riding, barrel racing and steer roping, which requires a separate $10 ticket.
Visitors looking for a break can head to the Expo Center's main stage area, where karaoke and background music play during the day and local bands perform each evening Thursday through Saturday. New this year is Contest Central, hourly pop-up contests visitors can join on the spot, including a stomp-rocket contest hosted by the Air Zoo and a paper-airplane contest with the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek airport, plus a hula hoop contest and a donut-eating contest on a string. A brochure handed out at the gate lists times and locations for all of it the activities.
Younger kids have their own corner in Kiddie Land, with small rides, bounce houses and pony rides, while a climbing wall, mechanical bull and indoor mini golf appeal to older kids and adults. The community stage adds a princess-and-superhero show, a Kalamazoo Civic Theatre sing-along, Ballet Folklórico from El Concilio, a magician, and a story time from the Kalamazoo Public Library.
The Expo Center itself is fully ground-level and accessible, and much of the fair — commercial vendors, the community stage, mini golf — is indoors, giving visitors shelter if severe weather rolls through; staff will direct guests to take cover if needed.
Admission is $10 per vehicle Tuesday and Wednesday and $20 Thursday through Saturday; kids five and under are free. Thursday, Aug. 6 is Senior Day with free admission for those 60 and older, and Friday offers half-price admission for veterans and active military.
More details are available at KalamazooCountyFair.com or by calling 269-383-8761.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
