He will start his way to the chair position beginning this year, working his way up.

That’s big news for Parsons, as well as for the Clay County Fair.

Marla Calico is president and CEO of the IAFE, and is based out of Springfield, Missouri, the zone in which the Clay County Fair is assigned.

She said the IAFE wants board members who represent a broad area of the fairs it represents, candidates who are actively involved in IAFE activities, and from all sizes of fairs.

-Photo by Karen Schwaller
Ag education is a big part of the Clay County Fair. Here, a young fairgoer gets hands-on experience with a baby chick.

Simply put, the nominating committee looks into people’s involvement, gathers to talk about accomplishments and abilities of their candidates, and based on their qualifications and abilities to do the job, they choose the one that best fits the responsibilities of the chair position to ask if they would be interested in the title.

“There was a huge round of applause (when Jeremy’s name was brought forth) at the business meeting at the annual convention because everybody loves Jeremy,” said Calico.

Calico said the nominating committee is made up of engaged individuals of the association who have a history with it, and a diverse representation of people in terms of geographics, age and size of fairs.

“Jeremy has grown up in this business, and everybody in Iowa has watched him grow since he was a teenager,” said Calico. “It’s his knowledge … and he has such a wonderful personality; he truly is such a caring individual and makes everybody feel like they’re the most important person in the room when he talks to you.

“Fairs are in his blood, and thank goodness for us that he has found a home in that. Everybody is on Jeremy’s cheerleading squad because he is just fantastic and very well-known in the fair industry,” said Calico.

-Photo by Karen Schwaller
Part of the thrill of the Clay County Fair for all ages are the amusement rides. Fair Manager Jeremy Parsons said it continues to be a major draw, and that the fair board works hard to create a fair that is clean and filled with activities for people of all ages to enjoy.

She said Parsons has been on the road speaking on behalf of the IAFE, rubbing elbows and promoting the association. Calico said she thought everyone on the nominating committee knew him, which helped his nomination case.

Parsons was also tapped to be the chair of their international program committee for 2018, and Calico said he gave up going to convention activities, dedicating himself for two years to being adjunct staff for the association.

“We loved him for it because for Jeremy to give up his personal time … to be part of our team, it was phenomenal for us. We think the world of him, especially here at IAFE,” said Calico.

As chair of the IAFE, she said Parsons will be traveling to at least seven meetings of fair people in various zones of the nation and world, with attendees ranging in number from 100 to 1,000 people. Parsons will give five- to 10-minute presentations about the IAFE, what they do and get them excited about being members and attending their convention. He will also convene three board meetings throughout the year and will serve on the executive committee.

Parsons will also be a liaison between committees, and will be part of the annual convention and the management conference.

-Photo by Karen Schwaller
PAUL KASSEL, ISU Extension and Outreach field specialist, used the Clay County Fairgrounds as a teaching tool for helping people understand how food is produced. Here, he shows a new combine corn head to a group of fairgoer “students” who came to gain that experience.

“He will be the face of IAFE to our membership as the chair,” said Calico.

The IAFE represents approximately 1,100 fairs around the world, including Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Korea, etc. The entity is governed by a board of directors whose members also come from all around the world.

“I was elected to the position of second vice chair this year,” Parsons said. “I was very humbly selected … it’s not (a position) you seek.”

Parsons will work up to the first vice chair in 2021, and will chair the organization in 2022, then will spend the following two years working his way off of that board. It will be a five-year total commitment.

Background

Parsons is not new to leading in the fair industry. He served as chair of the Young Professionals Group for IAFE in 2014, and in 2018 he chaired the Program Committee for IAFE, which plans the annual convention.

He said it was through those roles that people on the nominating committee had seen him and his work.

“I will be the second youngest chair in the history of the IAFE. It’s not something that was on my radar because of my age more than anything,” said Parsons, 42. “It’s humbling to know a group of fair professionals from around the United States nominated me.”

He will be 45 when he takes the chair position in 2022.

Parsons will be the second Clay County Fair manager to take the IAFE chair position. Myles Johnson, who managed the fair from 1974-1994, took that role around 1990.

“I think that shows where the Clay County Fair sits in the fair world — that we’ve had two chairs now,” said Parsons. “… Plus the fact that we’re a county fair … It’s really just a handful of individuals who have served as chair of the IAFE coming from a county fair. I will be the fifth Iowan to chair the IAFE, and the other three have all been managers of the Iowa State Fair, so it’s a very high honor in the fair industry to represent all fairs.”

His responsibilities

Parsons’ main responsibility as chair of the IAFE in 2022 will be to represent the organization to groups around the world, so it means he will be traveling.

“The main highlight will be at the main convention in 2022 — as the chair, getting to put my personal stamp on the convention,” he said.

Parsons said the fair world is divided into eight zones, with various leaders representing different states and provinces around the nation and the world. He will travel to meet the people from all eight zones during his tenure as chairperson, networking with those people and representing the IAFE.

“I’ve had the opportunity to travel a lot as part of the IAFE’s speaker’s bureau,” said Parsons. “I love the Clay County Fair, but I love the fair business in general, so it’s an honor to get to represent fairs across the world.”

Parsons said fairs around the world are as different as they are the same, and face some similar challenges — such as aging grounds and the costs of maintaining them; educating fairgoers about agriculture, and counteracting the negativity surrounding agriculture today.

“The Clay County Fair is very well respected and it’s a great fair. This is a good spot to be,” said Parsons, adding that chairing the IAFE is the highest goal for someone in the fair industry. “This is just another honor for the Clay County Fair.”

Growing up at the fair

Parsons grew up in Leon, Iowa — a Decatur County city of just under 2,000 residents in south central Iowa, near the Missouri border. The son of a county fair board president, Parsons said he started out life with “forced family fun” helping at the four-day Decatur County Fair.

“I grew up attending the Iowa State Fair and I had to do a school project in elementary school on a future career thing, so I thought, ‘Someone has to be in charge of the Iowa State Fair.’ And that started a connection with the Iowa State Fair manager at that time,” he said.

Parsons worked for the Iowa State Fair in the entertainment office for 13 summers — including through high school and college at Southwest Baptist University in Bolliver, Missouri, near Springfield, Missouri. While in college, he majored in English and minored in business administration, then taught in north central Missouri for a few years, working summers at the Iowa State Fair.

Parsons began working on the summer staff at the Missouri State Fair when the opportunity arose, keeping that position for four years. Soon after that he became a full-time staff member, directing the fair’s private foundation, raising money for upkeep on the fairgrounds, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

“Much like here, there were a lot of buildings that had to be fixed, but they were these big, beautiful brick buildings that could be restored,” Parsons said.

He was hired to manage the Clay County Fair in 2011.

“So even though I’m young, I’ve been around fairs for a long, long time,” Parsons said, adding that the Clay County Fair competes size-wise to state fairs all across the country. When they compete for awards, the large attendance at the fair in Spencer mandates that they compete with state fairs across the nation.

But Parsons said bigger isn’t always better.

“Here you’ve got your classic fair with all the components. We’re a big fair, but we still get the small-town life,” he said. “It’s a private fair, so we aren’t reporting to the state.”

Parsons said because of the small-town nature of the Clay County Fair, much passion surrounds it. In fact, he said it’s a fair that shouldn’t be successful due to its run schedule.

“In the Midwest, there’s no other (county) fair going in September — just us and the Kansas State Fair,” he said. “… But also because of (the time of year), we get to do school field trips and some things that other fairs can’t do,” he said.

Parsons said one of the former presidents/CEOs of the IAFE called the Clay County Fair “the eighth wonder of the world.”

“When you think about it, 300,000 people coming to a town of 11,000 in September … there are a lot of reasons that shouldn’t make sense. School is in session … but I think that speaks to the proud tradition of the fair, that even 100 years ago they decided from the beginning to make it a really big fair. Look at that grandstand (they built back then). They expected big things from the beginning.”

Fairs have changed

Parsons said fairs evolve with society. One of the big pushes in the fair industry is ag education and the need to teach people about food production. Entertainment has also become more complicated, because of its expense, Parsons said.

“There is also more emphasis on fairgoer safety,” said Parsons. “We live in a dangerous world — 10 years ago no one would guess we’d be doing bag checks or wanding at our fair, and both of those are issues we had to do because entertainers have requested it.”

Parsons said families and making memories at the fair is something that has remained a common denominator at the Clay County Fair and at all fairs.

“Fairs provide a place for people to show their best … It’s still all about competition, and that’s important,” said Parsons. “Fairs are celebrations of what’s good in our society.”

At the same time, he said the need to change some things at the county fair is sometimes ticklish. Some like constancy, while others demand change.

“You always have to find the sweet spot in the middle, and the reason the Clay County Fair is relevant today — and growing and thriving — is because they have mastered that divide of always maintaining the traditional elements, but adding new things to it. Places that don’t do that become museums … eventually they die. But at the same time, you can come to the fair with the reassurance that there are still some traditional things. You just have to balance it.”

Parsons said changing the fair in the future is something the fair board needs to consider because of an aging population, one that is not increasing, and questions about what agriculture will look like in a few years. He said agriculture looks different in various parts of the nation, and the same industry can be weak in one area of the U.S. and thriving in others.

“Changes in agriculture will affect how our fair looks,” Parsons said. “I think we have our work cut out for us because we want to maintain, we want to be relevant — and we want to continue some of the things we’re doing. I think some things will have to change, but It’s no different than we’ve always done at the fair. While things have to change, it’s not bad, we just have to evolve.”

The Clay County Fair has a full-time staff of 12, along with 50 seasonal employees, plus 400 paid employees during the fair. Parsons said that doesn’t count the roughly 1,000 volunteers on top of that who help make the fair happen.

Parsons said the fair industry continues to feed his passion for the industry itself.

“When I walk through the fairgrounds during the fair and see people having a good time … (I know that) we get to plan people’s highlight, whether it’s a show or someone showing that lamb — we get to plan that, and that’s pretty cool,” he said.

He said the fair draws people from a radius of about 100 miles. For various factors, he said the fair will someday need to expand that, but in supporting that notion, Parsons said people are more mobile now than they have ever been. Regardless, Parsons said agriculture is something that will continue to attract fairgoers.

“Our niche is (not only) ag education, but we can still be the fair for the producer,” Parsons said. “We still offer you farm machinery to look at. Other fairs have had to adapt because there are fewer farmers. That’s a niche that can help us expand our draw.”

Parsons sees himself at the helm of the Clay County Fair for the foreseeable future.

“This is a very special fair. It makes it easy to work at a place when people really love it,” he said. “We have a dedicated board of directors and executive committee who also understand their roles, and a dedicated staff. Spencer is also a great place to raise a family.”

Parsons said the Clay County Fair is an original masterpiece.

“I don’t think it can be replicated,” he said. “The fair has developed such a tradition and now people just expect to come. It’s taken 100 years to get here.”

Parsons is a new member of the Spencer Community School Board and is active in his church. He and his wife, Kelsi, have three sons — Creighton, 10; Silas, 7; and Milo, 4.

He said they are growing up in the fair industry just like he did, and that the fairgrounds in Spencer is also giving them “a nice place to grow up.”