By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The Darke County Agricultural Society is getting closer to pinning down its Grandstand entertainment for the 2024 Great Darke County Fair.

With the announcement that Bachman Turner Overdrive would be performing on Thursday evening, the board had to move some of its traditional events to different days. Over the past few years, the fair has featured the Parshalls and Gene Riegle Open on Thursday. Those races will now be moved to Wednesday evening. Horse racing will also take place on the first Friday and Saturday night in front of the Grandstand and again on Wednesday afternoon. Craig Bowman said the afternoon racing will be done in time for the annual Veterans Days Parade and ceremony on Wednesday evening.

With great events returning to the Grandstand, such as the cheerleading competition, band spectacular, harness racing, tractor pull, demolition derby and motorcycle racing, there is still one void in the schedule. The board discussed the possibility of having two nights for the demolition derby. There was discussion about having a school bus demo derby with a few other classes on Sunday evening. There was also discussion about having a Battle of the Bands that night. The board will wait until after they attend the Ohio Fair Managers Association meeting at the beginning of the year before making their decision. There may be other ideas generated from that meeting that would work for the Darke County Fair.

After that discussion, the promoter of the Food Truck Rallies at the Darke County Fairgrounds, Jason Blackburn, asked the board if he could bring in a demolition derby to his Food Truck Rally in May. He had originally scheduled the rodeo for that evening but has moved the rodeo to the June Food Truck Rally. The board expressed several concerns about having a demolition derby. Dave Singer suggested that too many events on the tractor pullers pulling track would be detrimental to the track. Other board members were concerned that if the board does decide to go with two demolition derbies at the fair, a third demo derby could have a financial impact on their events. The board voted against allowing Blackburn to have a demo derby.

The board also heard a request from Pat and Kim Harless. The couple explained their grandson is putting together a proposal to have Fair Dash. If allowed, the Fair Dash app would work similar to other food service apps. Participating concessions would subscribe to Fair Dash as vendors and fairgoers could download and subscribe to the app and have food delivered from certain concessions. Delivery would only be on the fairgrounds. Kim and Pat explained if someone is sitting in the Coliseum or if they have are camping in the south end, they could go to the app and have their fair food delivered.

The board seemed to be in favor of the idea but had concerns about the limited internet and service available on the fairgrounds. The Harless’ grandson is expected to come to the next meeting to give more information.

The next regular meeting of the Darke County Agricultural Society’s board of directors has been moved to Wednesday, Jan. 10, 7:30 p.m.

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].