Hutchinson ? A day before the opening of the Kansas State Fair, exhibitor Fred Zillich was busy unloading more than 200 chickens, ducks and geese into wire cages at the poultry barn.

It was midnight Wednesday when he left his Mercer, Mo., home to make to the fair in Hutchinson. It is a ritual he has kept for 37 years.

Ask him why he does it, and he laughs. “Stupidity,” he said Thursday.

But he quickly added he enjoyed showing the animals he breeds and raises.

“I enjoy bringing them out for people to look at,” Zillich said.

When the fair opens today, Zillich will be there with hundreds of other exhibitors eager to showcase some of the best of the state’s livestock, merchandise and food in an annual tradition that spans generations.

Fair officials are equally anxious to showcase the latest fairground improvements that are part of a five-year, $36 million modernization plan.

Among the most noticeable change this year will be the Cottonwood Court building — a two-story, air-conditioned food court. Eleven of the fair’s 80-plus food vendors are there.

That renovated building and a remodeled Domestic Arts building cost $4.1 million. Other improvements in infrastructure for water, fire protection and sewer lines will be less obvious.

For general manager Denny Stoecklein, it will be his first year in the top job running the fair.

His vision, he said, is “finding ways to modernize the fair — attracting younger demographics while not jeopardizing the tradition of the fair.”

Attendance numbers are crucial.

The fair is still trying to recover from the devastating 2001 state fair, when attendance fell by 20 percent to 282,535. The fair ended up with a $600,000 budget shortfall.

That was the year when the natural gas explosions and a hepatitis outbreak in Hutchinson already had heightened public fears — even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that happened during the fair.

“We are still recovering financially — 2001 was pretty devastating,” Stoecklein said.

In 2002, attendance rebounded to 338,693, a more average figure.