This year's Douglas County Fair will be the first since the comprehensive renovations at the fairgrounds.

This year’s Douglas County Fair will be the consummation of lots of planning and work.

In one sense, that’s nothing new. Each year, county 4-H’ers show off the results of hours of preparation and labor when they exhibit animals and projects at the fair. Kaitlyn Peine, 4-H agent for Douglas County Kansas State Extension, said 350 county 4-H’ers were working on 5,865 projects for the fair, which will run from July 22 through July 29 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

“There’s going to be a lot to see at the fair,” she said.

This year’s fair also will be the first to make use of all the features in the $7.95 million fairgrounds renovation project, which the Douglas County Commission gave its final approval to last year. Construction started on the renovations in the spring of 2016, and some features, including the Flory Meeting Hall, were completed before last year’s fair. This year, the renovation’s two biggest gems — the $2.75 million Open Pavilion and the completely redone $1.75 million, 1,935 seat Outdoor Arena — will host some of the fair’s most popular events.

George Hunsinger, vice president of the Douglas County Fair Board, said the fair would be the realization of a vision he and others started putting down on paper a decade ago.

His association with the fair goes back 50 years to his own 4-H days and continued through his children’s involvement, Hunsinger said. He was in charge of the antique tractor pull for a few years, was a referee for the demolition derby on a few occasions and was the superintendent for 19 years of the 4-H swine show.

It was that last position that earned him an invitation to the table when in 2007 the Douglas County Commission formed a committee to start planning for the renovations of the fairgrounds.

“I can remember at our first committee meeting about how we all talked about what we wanted,” Hunsinger said. “At about the third meeting, one gentleman on the committee who had a background in mechanical drawing brought some plans he’d drawn up at his kitchen table from those ideas we’d tossed out. That was what we started working with.”

Those plans were eventually handed over to Treanor Architects to be refined, Hunsinger said.

“I’ll be the first to admit I’m sad to see the old barns go because of all the fond memories I have, but it was time,” he said. “I can’t wait to see the Open Pavilion full of kids and livestock. It has an identical but smaller design as one at the state fairgrounds in Hutchinson.”

The design incorporates a clerestory for light and fans to help keep the livestock stalls cool, Hunsinger said. There’s also a large ceiling fan in the facility’s show arena to help keep spectators, 4-H’ers and livestock comfortable. That should make for better presentations in the ring, he said.

“When it’s hot, livestock can be frisky and hard to work with,” he said. “Things are just better when it’s cooler, especially with the animals.”

As central as the livestock shows are in the fair experiences of 4-H members and their families, Hunsinger knows most of those attending the fair come to see events at the Outdoor Arena, including the antique tractor pull at 7:30 p.m. July 27 and the demolition derby at 7:30 p.m. July 28.

“The biggest thing in the fair is the demolition derby,” he said. “I think people are going to be very excited to see the new arena. When they come out, they’ll see why it was built the way it is.”

The new Outdoor Arena offers more and better seating, better lighting and sound systems and enhanced safety, Hunsinger said.

“I’m tickled with the bleacher system,” he said. “It’s very similar to the Lawrence High School stadium. It’s much safer. I always feared with the old bleachers, kids or seniors would fall through the gaps in the steps. There are no gaps to fall through now.”

The carnival has been relocated this year to a grassy area between the Outdoor Arena and the four old livestock barns retained for storage, Hunsinger said. During the fair, two of the old barns will be home to a petting zoo, he said.

Also relocated this year will be the Chefs Challenge. The popular event will be moved to the new concrete stage, extension family and consumer science agent Susan Johnson said. The contest, wherein local chefs show off their talents using locally grown products, will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. July 26. This year’s featured ingredient, which the chefs must use in the dishes, is peppers, she said.

“They can be hot, sweet or whatever they want to use,” she said. “But they have to include peppers.”

The stage will also be the site of free live music from 7 to 10 p.m. on July 23, 25 and 27.

The fairground renovations included more than the construction of new venues, Hunsinger and Peine said. New restrooms, sidewalks and parking lots made the fairgrounds much more accessible for attendees with disabilities, and the new facilities were designed with those needs in mind, they said.

“When I got bored, I’d go to county fairs close to us,” Hunsinger said. “I’ve been to a lot of county fairs, even those farther away. I can tell you we have one of the nicest fairgrounds in the state of Kansas. We can thank our County Commission for supporting that.”