Ever since Jeremy Parsons got his first taste of fair life as a kid, he knew it was larger than his ability to shake it. His love of fairs (over time) led him to the fair manager position at the Clay County Fair (CCF) in Spencer in 2011, a post that allowed him to become deeply ingrained in the Spencer community.

This past January, Parsons announced his plans to leave the Clay County Fair to become the executive manager of the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

“When we moved here our son was 2 years old; we have three kids now and the Clay County Fair was their first fair memories,” Parsons said, remembering how important his own first fair memories were as a young boy.

Growing up in Leon, Iowa, Parsons, 45, remembered an elementary school assignment where students were asked to write about what they wanted to be when they grew up. A very young Parsons found (then) Iowa State Fair Manager Marion Lucas and interviewed him. Lucas invited Parsons to return to the fairgrounds during the fair so he could show him what he does.

-File photo by Karen Schwaller
The Clay County Fair, which takes place each September in Spencer, has been deemed "The World's Greatest County Fair." Here the rides of the midway light up the night sky. Since its inception in 1917-18, only World War II and COVID-19 have been able to shut down the fair.

Parsons didn’t know then that he would one day follow in Lucas’ very footsteps.

Parsons worked summers at the Iowa State Fair for 13 years in the special events and marketing departments. He eventually took a teaching position in Missouri after college and still spent his summers at the Iowa State Fair before accepting an executive director position for the Missouri State Fair Foundation.

In time, he discovered an opening for the CEO position of the Clay County Fair in Spencer, deemed “The World’s Greatest County Fair.”

“It’s kind of a full-circle thing, going back to where I started my fair career,” said Parsons of his decision to make the change.

Changes

-File photo by Karen Schwaller
Like most fairs, food vendors are one of the main attractions at the Clay County Fair. Here, customers line up to get their Tom Thumb mini-donuts.

Parsons led the charge to improve infrastructure at the Clay County Fairgrounds with street paving and overlays, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent underground with the new “food row” utility project, installing water in the north campgrounds, facilitating the storm sewer separation project, and general aesthetic improvements on the grounds.

He also remembers the removal of the Ag Building in 2017 (which had outgrown its usefulness), and putting up the new Centennial Plaza and Tower Gate Pavilion, along with the new Grandpa’s Barn, which has become a major attraction on the grounds.

“I was also part of a complete organizational overhaul,” said Parsons. “When I got there, the fair and events center were separate organizations, so we combined them and moved the offices into the events center, and overhauled our bylaws and governance structure, and introduced electronic ticketing and electronic entries for livestock.”

He said the introduction of alcohol sales on the fairgrounds is still in its infancy stages and remains controversial for some.

“I give a lot of credit for improvements and changes in these last 11 years to our board, our executive committee and our staff — they’ve been willing to accept change and do whatever is needed to move the fair forward,” Parsons said.

COVID-19

Parsons led the difficult charge to decide what to do with the fair during a worldwide pandemic.

With the odds against the fair — volunteers and organizations deciding not to “take the chance,” and the fair board wondering if people would even enjoy the fair if it had to undergo drastic changes in order to take place — Parsons and his executive committee made the decision not to hold the 2020 Clay County Fair.

Then he had to announce it to the world.

“It was my worst day on the job — July 2, 2020,” Parsons said. “It was an emotional day just to say it, but I think a lot of us knew weeks before that it probably wouldn’t happen, with the Iowa State Fair and Minnesota State Fair making announcements that they weren’t having their fairs, and we did detailed survey work and heard fairgoers say they weren’t going to come.”

Parsons said part of the job is making sure fairgoers are safe, and COVID-19 created an invisible adversary from which the staff needed to protect fairgoers.

“In this situation, keeping fairgoers safe meant not bringing them together and to not have the fair. While it was a tough decision, it became pretty easy. And ultimately, if we would have tried to go ahead with the fair, no one would have liked it; you wouldn’t have recognized it, and we think it would have set us back in some ways,” Parsons said.

Only World War II was able to shut down the fair since its origin in 1917-1918.

“There were difficult, horrible days during COVID-19 — telling the staff that they got to keep their jobs but they had to take a 20 percent pay cut for a while — who knew (then) how long? And that included me as well,” Parsons said. “No one left, and I think that speaks to their dedication to the fair.”

On the other hand, the shut-down of the 2020 fair led to financial concerns, since the fair makes its money for the following year during the nine days of the fair’s previous run. Parsons said a campaign was launched to “Save the Fair,” which garnered $1.6 million in donations and pledges. Those dollars helped the Clay County Fair happen in 2021 and into the future.

Parsons said it can be stressful trying to govern an entire year’s income based on nine days.

“It’s a horrible business model — it’s worse than farming,” he joked. “It all comes down to nine days. When you approve an annual budget, it’s all about nine days that you hope will be decent (weather wise), or that you’ll even have them, as we now know from COVID … that you may not even have them. After COVID, I will never again complain about a rainy day at the fair, because that’s not the worst thing that can happen — the worst thing that can happen is no fair.”

On a personal note

Parsons said his opportunity to lead the Clay County Fair has given him a new-found faith in people.

“Sometimes we live in a hateful world, and to know that every year people stop what they’re doing to help put this fair on — it’s a true community effort. It renews my faith in humanity. People still want to do good things for other people, and that’s what happens at the fair every year.”

He said it has also taught him how to be a better communicator with the general public and stakeholders, as well as how to be a custodian of something that is “much larger than we are.”

“My job here is to be the caretaker,” he said. “The fair went on 90-some years before I got here and it will go on for 90-plus years beyond me. When you’re taking care of something that means so much to so many people, there’s a weight to that and an expectation to it, too.

“But at the same time it’s a tremendous joy to get to help plan something that lasts for only nine days, but means so much to so many people.”

Parsons said he and his board are working to keep the fair relevant, especially in the ag sector.

“I think this fair will continue to be one of the remaining agricultural expositions left in the fair World, whether it be increased 4-H livestock participation or the farm machinery show, this will continue to be a truly ag-based fair.

“And yet there are challenges that face the fair and rural Iowa,” Parsons continued. “… declining population, bigger and bigger ag, especially. But you don’t stay around as an organization for 100-plus years without reinventing yourself over the course of time, and obviously this fair has always done that.”

He said the fair is backed by 13 full-time employees, 49 part-time/seasonal employees, 293 fair-time employees and roughly 250 fair volunteers — not counting volunteers who work for 4-H/Extension projects or volunteers who work at food stands, etc.

Looking back … and ahead

Looking back at his tenure, Parsons said he finds great value in the fact that his three sons got their first taste of a fair at the Clay County Fair, and that he and his wife, Kelsi, can continue to bring their children up in a fairgrounds atmosphere.

He said when they moved to Spencer, they had only a 2-year-old son.

Today they have three sons, now ages 13, 10 and 7.

“I will miss walking through the fair and seeing a lot of people I know — interacting with them and watching them have a good time; those cool nights in the grandstand, and those days of walking down the main food row area and seeing people have a good time.

“And I’ll really miss working with the board and staff here who are dedicated and passionate about the fair, and who want to see it grow, not to just see it stay the same,” he continued. “They want the fair to succeed, but they are not afraid to see the fair move forward, even if it means it has to change. That’s an important distinction.”

Parsons said, “It’s a balance. Fairs are about nostalgia and tradition and family memories, and you have to honor that. But at the same time, you have to continue to move them forward because those traditions change, and that’s because the world changes.”

Parsons said fair foods are something he looks forward to hearing about each year. Some of the zaniest foods he remembers at the Clay County Fair are the Barnyard Burger (which included beef, pork and poultry on one sandwich); Bacon Balls, and Spam Curds, which won the top “People’s Choice” title one year.

Parsons said more than 300,000 people attend the Clay County Fair annually, with 25 percent of the fairgoers being outside of Iowa, which he said makes the fair a big tourism event.

“The fact that 800 4-H and FFA kids exhibit here each year is an astonishing number, and they come from at least 40 different counties in a (multi-state) area. And through our surveys, fair food continues to move up the list of important attractions here. People come here to eat. Now we think about trying to tie in that love of fair food with ag education,” he said.

Parsons said he continues to be amazed that fair attendance has remained largely the same since he first arrived, because with Iowa’s population declining and fair attendance remaining largely the same, it means people are coming from greater distances to see the fair.

“Sometimes you get too caught up in numbers, but we’ve invested millions in capital improvements to make the fair a better place for people, and we’ve worked to bring a diversity to acts at the grandstand and on the fairgrounds to appeal to different audiences.”

Parsons said all people who have a job at the Clay County Fair seem to take pride in it. He said he sees it when he walks around and watches people.

He hopes to take that with him to the Iowa State Fair and bring that sense of pride to all who work the state fairgrounds.

What he has learned

Parsons has been a member of the Spencer School Board, has been active in their Spencer church and was a past president of the Spencer Chamber of Commerce and held other Chamber officer positions.

Parsons most recently was chairman of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions, which took him around the world promoting fairs and expos, including the Clay County Fair.

Parsons was the youngest person to ever lead that organization.

“It made me realize that there are passionate people all across our world who strive each year to put on the best possible event for their community. It also made me realize that all fairs are really the same no matter where they are. It’s just a difference in “zeros at the end,” whether it’s attendance or budget,” said Parsons.

He said his new opportunity to lead the Iowa State Fair will afford him a goal he said he’s wanted to achieve for the duration of his lifetime.

“The decision was hard, but it was clear that it was the right one — and if you can leave anything in your life like that, it’s a good thing,” he said. “There’s a clear understanding in the fair industry of what a great fair this is. This did not serve as a stepping stone for me. There is one other fair I would leave for, and that’s the Iowa State Fair. This is a good place.”

This move will bring Parsons and his family closer to their families. They have lived four and five hours away from their families, and now they will live 50 minutes away from one side, and less than two hours from the other.

“For my kids to be able to be around their grandparents and cousins more, it’s like ‘going home.’ That’s the personal piece to this,” Parsons said.

He added that for all the years he has been the CEO of the Clay County Fair, his father has always been there the entire nine-day run, every year.

Steve Waller, chairman of the CCF Board of Directors, said Parsons’ new opportunity came sooner than they had imagined, but they are grateful for what the fair has become under his management.

“The Clay County Fair will miss Jeremy’s enthusiasm and direction, and his willingness to improve the fair and continue that strong agricultural reputation the fair is known for,” he said, adding that Parsons wasn’t afraid to tackle long-overdue capital improvement projects and update the fairgrounds both above-ground and below-ground with utility and building replacement projects.

Waller said the fairgrounds encompasses 200 acres, and with the fairgrounds being a 100-plus-year-old facility, it “takes some management.”

Parsons sums up the work, travels, joys, hardships, disciplines — and even the sacrifices of — his tenure with three simple words that he said he tries to show to those who work with and for him.

“Leaders should lead,” he said.

Parsons’ last day on the job in Spencer will be March 3. He said he is leaving Spencer with some fond memories, but is looking forward to the challenge of leading one of the nation’s premiere state fairs.

“The Clay County Fair is a special place, and we’ll miss it in September,” he said.

Waller said the CCF board of directors hopes to have another CEO in place by April 1.