Cream Puffs, food-on-a-stick, rides and animals are all part of the annual summer tradition of the Wisconsin State Fair, which kicks off its 155th run today.
Orchestrating the 11-day extravaganza is Randy Prasse, who enters his second Fair as Executive Director. The Freeport, Ill. native knows a thing or two about fairs, having grown up showing dairy cattle in 4-H and FFA shows. He’s charged with combining that experience with the festival savvy he developed running Bastille Days and Jazz in the Park as head of the East Town Association. Prasse got his start working for Harbor Fest in Racine.
OnMilwaukee.com sat down with Prasse for his take on the Fair, the financial problems that have plagued the park in years past, and how he plans to keep the State Fair viable and fun as it moves to the future.
OMC: Are things easier having one State Fair under your belt?
RP: Actually, it’s harder. There’s more pressure. Last year, I came in January so for all intents and purposes, the planning was already done. I didn’t have a lot of influence on the ’05 fair because by January, February and March you’re into making it happen. In September, October and November, the Fair is fresh in your mind. All the different managers spend that time talking about what could be done better, what doesn’t need to be changed and what’s going to be new.
OMC: What are some of the things you had to pick up on, having come on halfway through the planning stages?
RP: I missed that curve last year, and we also had Hammy (Hamilton McClaymont) who was the Fair Manager for the last five years. Hammy handled the day-to-day operations, and I got some influence on how things were done, but philosophically, it was Hammy doing it. Now, not only am I the Executive Director, but I’m the Fair Manager, too, so I am taking on a triple role. (Liaison to the Wisconsin State Fair Park Board, Executive Director of the State Fair, Fair Manager).
OMC: Obviously, the financial troubles of the Milwaukee Mile, the Pettit Center and Wisconsin Exposition Center have gotten a lot of press. How does the recent agreement to lease the Mile and the pending sale of the Pettit help the Fair?
RP: Because of the financial drain, the Fair -- the actual 11-day event -- has gotten lumped in with the court of public opinion. During the Fair, the media does a great job of reporting the great things that go on at the Fair. By and large, they report the problems, the audit reports, and the financial losses and the things we haven’t been doing right during the last 10, 15 years.
That hurts the image of the Fair; it’s kind of guilt by association. The first thing we want to do is change perception of the Fair. It’s always been successful and has always been on strong financial footing. The Fair itself has never been a problem, but it has had to take revenue that it’s generated to underwrite other losses. By getting those fixed, we can pay off the deficit and reinvest in the fair.
OMC: You talk about the image, the Fair has been around for more than 100 years, do the problems of the Park have that big an effect?
RP: Morale kind of took a hit. That staff was being told to go out and be creative and try new things, but when they came up, we couldn’t afford to do it. Eventually, that takes a toll and people ask “why do I try to be creative.” It always came back to the neighboring entities was having problems so the Fair couldn’t afford to do some things. The Fair did suffer from that. By us being able to reinvest in the Fair, we’re going to be able to be creative again.
OMC: What are some of the goals as you take the Fair forward?
RP: As soon as the Fair is over, we’re going to enter a strategic planning process that will probably take two or three months. We’re going to look at five and 10-year long-term capital improvement goals that we’ll be paying for. We’re going to look long-range at entertainment, how to remain affordable and profitable. We’re going to look at our advertising message; what our message is and who we’re advertising to. We’re going to look at our attendance, have we capped out at 850-900,000 and hit a plateau? I’m personally fine with that. My goal isn’t to increase attendance. My goal is to maintain a safe and comfortable park where people can spend money and have a good time.
OMC: But increasing attendance isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
RP: I maintain you can make more money with less people. If you come with $100 in your pocket, but the lines are so long you can’t get through, you’re going to go home with 30 or 40 bucks left in your wallet. I want you to spend that money here and I want it to be easy. Quick lines, a lot of variety for you to use your money. We have ATMs all over the place, so I hope it’s easy enough for you to spend that $100 and you might want to spend more before you finish your day.
OMC: That’s a slightly similar philosophy than down on the lakefront, where Summerfest is looking at smaller crowds who are spending more money.
RP: I agree philosophically with what Don Smiley is doing on the lakefront. It goes back to making more money with fewer people, as long as they’re the right people. In our case, the right people are families. We have to be affordable. That’s really important. From an outsider looking in, Summerfest looks like they’re going more towards the baby-boomers, which is working great for them. We have to go towards families, from age 4 to 84. We have stuff for infants and their parents, but we need to get the teenagers in here so we can keep them coming when they hit the college age.
OMC: It does seem like a generational-gap sometimes.
RP: That’s an area we want to grow, 20-30-somethings. We got the kids with the rides and animals; we’ve got the parents who bring the kids. Teenagers might come for the rides and a couple bands, but once they get from late high school through college, they’re doing other things. They’re going to concerts or other things. When they get married and start having families, the cycle starts over again.
OMC: Some of the past events, especially on the Grandstand, have seemed to cater towards that crowd. Is that part of the plan to get new people to the Fair?
RP: That’s part of it. We’re doing more entertainment on the grounds to not only appeal to a wider age demographic, but to get a lot more diversity. We’ve done a lot of listening sessions with African-American and Hispanic community leaders to get their input on the Fair. We’ve obviously never done anything to turn away people, but we’ve advertised to the core audience, which has been loyal for generations. What we’ve done this year is a lot of Spanish-language advertising, and a lot of advertising in local African-American publications. We’ve been fortunate to get Eric Von and Eric Murphy to provide voice talent for radio spots. We’re trying to open the Fair up to people who otherwise haven’t experienced it before.
OMC: As the Fair opens, what are some of the things that people might not recognize this year?
RP: We’re really highlighting participation at the Fair this year. The thing that separates a fair from a festival is participation. If you’re handy with something, you can make it and enter it in a competition. We’re focusing on textiles, crafts, and culinary arts and we’ve moved the program from the back corner of the Expo Center to the front corner so one of the first things you see when you walk in is the heritage of the fair.
OMC: You mention agriculture and participation, that’s part of your background, isn’t it?
RP: I grew up on a farm and going to county and state fairs. Later this month, I’m going back to my county fair (in Freeport). I remember as a little kid going to the fair and seeing the giant pumpkins and cucumbers and squash and the cool dresses and photography and things people made as being the best part of the fair. The little things, the entertainment, the food, the beer and soda, the rides are all part of the experience. But the things that people remember are the things they can’t experience anywhere else.
OMC: Is that background what drew you to this job? Bastille Days and Jazz in the Park are great Milwaukee events, but State Fair doesn’t fall into the same demographic, so to speak.
RP: From a career standpoint, if you would have asked me 10 years ago I never would have imagined being here. Ten years ago, I did know I wanted a career in the festival industry. I worked as a volunteer and helped run some smaller festivals, then when I got to the East Town Association, that was my first paid job doing an event. It was exciting for me, because at the time my wife didn’t think you could make a life off running festivals. All she had seen me do is volunteer. When this job came up, it was like a bunch of worlds colliding; my career, the chance to work with music and programming, the sponsorship side of things, , and all of a sudden out of nowhere, that life that I had all but forgotten -- the farm background -- came front and center again. I thought I could use my agriculture experience and my years of going to fairs as a kid in FFA and 4-H and incorporate it with my festival career.
OMC: It has to be difficult trying to promote what essentially is an agricultural event in the center of the biggest urban area in the state.
RP: The Ag community has always seen the Fair as the Ag showcase for the state. As we become more urban, we kind of get away from that. Sure, the barns and animals are always here but the significance of agriculture in the state has been on the decline. I want to make sure the people with an Ag background feel better because they have a farm guy running the show.
OMC: That’s like instant credibility. They’re probably not expecting a Milwaukee guy to be a farmer.
RP: When I get invited to go meet with a breeder group, they start off with their list of complaints. They’ve got the guy in the seat, so they give him their complaints. And then all I say is “I agree”. I tell them that I grew up showing cattle, living in barns, and sleeping on a hay bale during the fair and everything changes.
OMC: What’s the difference, aside from the livestock, between State Fair and your old events like Jazz in the Park or Bastille Days?
RP: I still go to both of them, I go to Summerfest and I talk to festival coordinators all over the country. I still enjoy the festival side of things. I enjoy going to festivals, I enjoy producing a festival. Our tagline is creating memories that transcend generations. We’re doing things that people remember being pushed around in a stroller, or seeing the giant slide, and things that have been way back in their memory or locked up. A lot of people have told me their first job or first date was at the State Fair.
OMC: My first job was selling giant turkey legs at the Fair back in high school.
RP: Most of West Allis, I think, had their first job here. I met a guy last year that worked 50 years in admissions. He was a teacher, so he had summers off. And every year he came back and worked the Fair. He’s now 65 and retired, but not from the Fair. That’s a cool thing.
OMC: The Fair does have a lot of traditions to it.
RP: You see Millie’s (Italian Sausage), which has been here 75 years. Kalishian’s is in their 57th or 58th year. But to balance it off, we have five or six new restaurants. R.C. Schmidt has brought the Water Street Brewery and Brew City concepts to the Fair. It helps us, because people who identify with the lakefront know those places. A lot of the food you see at festivals are now here and that makes people comfortable.
OMC: What’s your favorite part of the fair, from a fair-goers perspective?
RP: My daughter is seven, and she’s been coming since she was two. I have, like a lot of people, a mental checklist of things to do; eat a corn dog, go down the slide, get an ear of corn, buy your mop, see the animals, and once you’ve cleared your checklist, there’s time to go try something new. I think having that variety of things to do is my favorite part. It’s not one-dimensional. You don’t come stand in front of a stage, eat, drink, and go home.
OMC: Where do you see the event in five years, if it was totally up to you?
RP: Pretty much the same direction we’re in now. Family affordability is always front and center. We can never lose sight of this being the largest family event in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. I don’t see it varying from that. What I’d like to see in five years is more diversity from our staff and our attendance. I’d like the free stages we have to showcase broader variety of music. I think some of the programming that has had constraints put on it by finances in recent years; I see them getting a chance to grow. I think we’ll grow the Ag department; I’d like to see a new coliseum in five years. I’d like to see more community and state support in terms of sponsorship.
While the State Fair is a showcase for agriculture in the state, I think it should also be a showcase for industry and manufacturing, too. Once upon a time, you could see all those companies here. I’d like to get the companies here involved again. I’d love to have a Harley-Davidson stage or gate. I’d love to have Briggs & Stratton involved, Master Lock and all these great business that are a part of Wisconsin.
OMC: There has been a noticeable increase in sponsorships on the grounds in recent years, which seems to be following a trend, especially now that you have a presenting sponsor in U.S. Cellular.
RP: Depending on how you look at it, we’re possibly the first state fair in the country to have a presenting sponsor. That is so key, because we’re trying to dig out of a financial hole. What this deal does, is allow for capital improvements we couldn’t otherwise have done. The money from that deal also drives community efforts, and it helps with the marketing of the fair. NASCAR pays its bills with advertising, college bowls games and stadiums have all followed suit in recent years.
In order for us to do what we need to do, sponsorship support is more important than ever. It allows us to do the event with minimal financial risk. It allows us to pay the bills. We make our money at the gate and on the grounds, but we pay the bill with sponsorships. U.S. Cellular respects a 155-year-old tradition.
OMC: So as a fair veteran, do you have any tips for fair-goers as the gates open?
RP: Bring your own mental checklist, create your own experience. Make a list of six things to do, then add six new things. And have a deep-fried snickers bar.
Orchestrating the 11-day extravaganza is Randy Prasse, who enters his second Fair as Executive Director. The Freeport, Ill. native knows a thing or two about fairs, having grown up showing dairy cattle in 4-H and FFA shows. He’s charged with combining that experience with the festival savvy he developed running Bastille Days and Jazz in the Park as head of the East Town Association. Prasse got his start working for Harbor Fest in Racine.
OnMilwaukee.com sat down with Prasse for his take on the Fair, the financial problems that have plagued the park in years past, and how he plans to keep the State Fair viable and fun as it moves to the future.
OMC: Are things easier having one State Fair under your belt?
RP: Actually, it’s harder. There’s more pressure. Last year, I came in January so for all intents and purposes, the planning was already done. I didn’t have a lot of influence on the ’05 fair because by January, February and March you’re into making it happen. In September, October and November, the Fair is fresh in your mind. All the different managers spend that time talking about what could be done better, what doesn’t need to be changed and what’s going to be new.
OMC: What are some of the things you had to pick up on, having come on halfway through the planning stages?
RP: I missed that curve last year, and we also had Hammy (Hamilton McClaymont) who was the Fair Manager for the last five years. Hammy handled the day-to-day operations, and I got some influence on how things were done, but philosophically, it was Hammy doing it. Now, not only am I the Executive Director, but I’m the Fair Manager, too, so I am taking on a triple role. (Liaison to the Wisconsin State Fair Park Board, Executive Director of the State Fair, Fair Manager).
OMC: Obviously, the financial troubles of the Milwaukee Mile, the Pettit Center and Wisconsin Exposition Center have gotten a lot of press. How does the recent agreement to lease the Mile and the pending sale of the Pettit help the Fair?
RP: Because of the financial drain, the Fair -- the actual 11-day event -- has gotten lumped in with the court of public opinion. During the Fair, the media does a great job of reporting the great things that go on at the Fair. By and large, they report the problems, the audit reports, and the financial losses and the things we haven’t been doing right during the last 10, 15 years.
That hurts the image of the Fair; it’s kind of guilt by association. The first thing we want to do is change perception of the Fair. It’s always been successful and has always been on strong financial footing. The Fair itself has never been a problem, but it has had to take revenue that it’s generated to underwrite other losses. By getting those fixed, we can pay off the deficit and reinvest in the fair.
OMC: You talk about the image, the Fair has been around for more than 100 years, do the problems of the Park have that big an effect?
RP: Morale kind of took a hit. That staff was being told to go out and be creative and try new things, but when they came up, we couldn’t afford to do it. Eventually, that takes a toll and people ask “why do I try to be creative.” It always came back to the neighboring entities was having problems so the Fair couldn’t afford to do some things. The Fair did suffer from that. By us being able to reinvest in the Fair, we’re going to be able to be creative again.
OMC: What are some of the goals as you take the Fair forward?
RP: As soon as the Fair is over, we’re going to enter a strategic planning process that will probably take two or three months. We’re going to look at five and 10-year long-term capital improvement goals that we’ll be paying for. We’re going to look long-range at entertainment, how to remain affordable and profitable. We’re going to look at our advertising message; what our message is and who we’re advertising to. We’re going to look at our attendance, have we capped out at 850-900,000 and hit a plateau? I’m personally fine with that. My goal isn’t to increase attendance. My goal is to maintain a safe and comfortable park where people can spend money and have a good time.
OMC: But increasing attendance isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
RP: I maintain you can make more money with less people. If you come with $100 in your pocket, but the lines are so long you can’t get through, you’re going to go home with 30 or 40 bucks left in your wallet. I want you to spend that money here and I want it to be easy. Quick lines, a lot of variety for you to use your money. We have ATMs all over the place, so I hope it’s easy enough for you to spend that $100 and you might want to spend more before you finish your day.
OMC: That’s a slightly similar philosophy than down on the lakefront, where Summerfest is looking at smaller crowds who are spending more money.
RP: I agree philosophically with what Don Smiley is doing on the lakefront. It goes back to making more money with fewer people, as long as they’re the right people. In our case, the right people are families. We have to be affordable. That’s really important. From an outsider looking in, Summerfest looks like they’re going more towards the baby-boomers, which is working great for them. We have to go towards families, from age 4 to 84. We have stuff for infants and their parents, but we need to get the teenagers in here so we can keep them coming when they hit the college age.
OMC: It does seem like a generational-gap sometimes.
RP: That’s an area we want to grow, 20-30-somethings. We got the kids with the rides and animals; we’ve got the parents who bring the kids. Teenagers might come for the rides and a couple bands, but once they get from late high school through college, they’re doing other things. They’re going to concerts or other things. When they get married and start having families, the cycle starts over again.
OMC: Some of the past events, especially on the Grandstand, have seemed to cater towards that crowd. Is that part of the plan to get new people to the Fair?
RP: That’s part of it. We’re doing more entertainment on the grounds to not only appeal to a wider age demographic, but to get a lot more diversity. We’ve done a lot of listening sessions with African-American and Hispanic community leaders to get their input on the Fair. We’ve obviously never done anything to turn away people, but we’ve advertised to the core audience, which has been loyal for generations. What we’ve done this year is a lot of Spanish-language advertising, and a lot of advertising in local African-American publications. We’ve been fortunate to get Eric Von and Eric Murphy to provide voice talent for radio spots. We’re trying to open the Fair up to people who otherwise haven’t experienced it before.
OMC: As the Fair opens, what are some of the things that people might not recognize this year?
RP: We’re really highlighting participation at the Fair this year. The thing that separates a fair from a festival is participation. If you’re handy with something, you can make it and enter it in a competition. We’re focusing on textiles, crafts, and culinary arts and we’ve moved the program from the back corner of the Expo Center to the front corner so one of the first things you see when you walk in is the heritage of the fair.
OMC: You mention agriculture and participation, that’s part of your background, isn’t it?
RP: I grew up on a farm and going to county and state fairs. Later this month, I’m going back to my county fair (in Freeport). I remember as a little kid going to the fair and seeing the giant pumpkins and cucumbers and squash and the cool dresses and photography and things people made as being the best part of the fair. The little things, the entertainment, the food, the beer and soda, the rides are all part of the experience. But the things that people remember are the things they can’t experience anywhere else.
RP: From a career standpoint, if you would have asked me 10 years ago I never would have imagined being here. Ten years ago, I did know I wanted a career in the festival industry. I worked as a volunteer and helped run some smaller festivals, then when I got to the East Town Association, that was my first paid job doing an event. It was exciting for me, because at the time my wife didn’t think you could make a life off running festivals. All she had seen me do is volunteer. When this job came up, it was like a bunch of worlds colliding; my career, the chance to work with music and programming, the sponsorship side of things, , and all of a sudden out of nowhere, that life that I had all but forgotten -- the farm background -- came front and center again. I thought I could use my agriculture experience and my years of going to fairs as a kid in FFA and 4-H and incorporate it with my festival career.
OMC: It has to be difficult trying to promote what essentially is an agricultural event in the center of the biggest urban area in the state.
RP: The Ag community has always seen the Fair as the Ag showcase for the state. As we become more urban, we kind of get away from that. Sure, the barns and animals are always here but the significance of agriculture in the state has been on the decline. I want to make sure the people with an Ag background feel better because they have a farm guy running the show.
OMC: That’s like instant credibility. They’re probably not expecting a Milwaukee guy to be a farmer.
RP: When I get invited to go meet with a breeder group, they start off with their list of complaints. They’ve got the guy in the seat, so they give him their complaints. And then all I say is “I agree”. I tell them that I grew up showing cattle, living in barns, and sleeping on a hay bale during the fair and everything changes.
OMC: What’s the difference, aside from the livestock, between State Fair and your old events like Jazz in the Park or Bastille Days?
RP: I still go to both of them, I go to Summerfest and I talk to festival coordinators all over the country. I still enjoy the festival side of things. I enjoy going to festivals, I enjoy producing a festival. Our tagline is creating memories that transcend generations. We’re doing things that people remember being pushed around in a stroller, or seeing the giant slide, and things that have been way back in their memory or locked up. A lot of people have told me their first job or first date was at the State Fair.
OMC: My first job was selling giant turkey legs at the Fair back in high school.
RP: Most of West Allis, I think, had their first job here. I met a guy last year that worked 50 years in admissions. He was a teacher, so he had summers off. And every year he came back and worked the Fair. He’s now 65 and retired, but not from the Fair. That’s a cool thing.
OMC: The Fair does have a lot of traditions to it.
RP: You see Millie’s (Italian Sausage), which has been here 75 years. Kalishian’s is in their 57th or 58th year. But to balance it off, we have five or six new restaurants. R.C. Schmidt has brought the Water Street Brewery and Brew City concepts to the Fair. It helps us, because people who identify with the lakefront know those places. A lot of the food you see at festivals are now here and that makes people comfortable.
OMC: What’s your favorite part of the fair, from a fair-goers perspective?
RP: My daughter is seven, and she’s been coming since she was two. I have, like a lot of people, a mental checklist of things to do; eat a corn dog, go down the slide, get an ear of corn, buy your mop, see the animals, and once you’ve cleared your checklist, there’s time to go try something new. I think having that variety of things to do is my favorite part. It’s not one-dimensional. You don’t come stand in front of a stage, eat, drink, and go home.
OMC: Where do you see the event in five years, if it was totally up to you?
RP: Pretty much the same direction we’re in now. Family affordability is always front and center. We can never lose sight of this being the largest family event in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. I don’t see it varying from that. What I’d like to see in five years is more diversity from our staff and our attendance. I’d like the free stages we have to showcase broader variety of music. I think some of the programming that has had constraints put on it by finances in recent years; I see them getting a chance to grow. I think we’ll grow the Ag department; I’d like to see a new coliseum in five years. I’d like to see more community and state support in terms of sponsorship.
While the State Fair is a showcase for agriculture in the state, I think it should also be a showcase for industry and manufacturing, too. Once upon a time, you could see all those companies here. I’d like to get the companies here involved again. I’d love to have a Harley-Davidson stage or gate. I’d love to have Briggs & Stratton involved, Master Lock and all these great business that are a part of Wisconsin.
OMC: There has been a noticeable increase in sponsorships on the grounds in recent years, which seems to be following a trend, especially now that you have a presenting sponsor in U.S. Cellular.
RP: Depending on how you look at it, we’re possibly the first state fair in the country to have a presenting sponsor. That is so key, because we’re trying to dig out of a financial hole. What this deal does, is allow for capital improvements we couldn’t otherwise have done. The money from that deal also drives community efforts, and it helps with the marketing of the fair. NASCAR pays its bills with advertising, college bowls games and stadiums have all followed suit in recent years.
In order for us to do what we need to do, sponsorship support is more important than ever. It allows us to do the event with minimal financial risk. It allows us to pay the bills. We make our money at the gate and on the grounds, but we pay the bill with sponsorships. U.S. Cellular respects a 155-year-old tradition.
OMC: So as a fair veteran, do you have any tips for fair-goers as the gates open?
RP: Bring your own mental checklist, create your own experience. Make a list of six things to do, then add six new things. And have a deep-fried snickers bar.
