Western Montana Fair

The Western Montana Fair returns to the Missoula County Fairgrounds July 31-Aug. 8! Fair activities and events will stretch over two weekends to give visitors ample time to enjoy everything from fair food and arena events to carnival games and live music. 

This week, the commissioners spoke with Billie Brown, fairgrounds events and operations manager, to discuss what’s new this year and how to plan your best visit to the Western Montana Fair.

 
Thank you to Missoula's Community Media Resource for podcast recording support!

Transcript

Juanita Vero: [00:00:10] Welcome back to the agenda with your Missoula County Commissioners. I'm here with my fellow County Commissioner, Dave Strohmaier Josh Slotnick is out this week, and today we're joined by Billie Brown, Fairgrounds Events and Operations manager. So Billie is in the midst of a very, very busy month leading up to a Western Montana fair. So thanks so much for your generosity and welcome back to the podcast, Billie.

Billie Brown: [00:00:35] Thanks.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:00:36] Well, before we dive into the nuts and bolts of what I think a lot of folks are probably interested in the upcoming Western Montana Fair, maybe give a reminder to folks who may be hearing from you for the first time just who you are, how you got into the role that you're in now, and and why you love doing what you're doing, which I'm assuming you still love what you're doing, but I will not presume that.

Billie Brown: [00:01:01] Yes, I'm originally from Miles city, so the only two things we had going on in town were the Bucking horse sale, and then the Eastern Montana Fair.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:01:08] Bucking horse sale is a big deal. Yeah.

Billie Brown: [00:01:10] And so then I went to college and I judged livestock, but I actually got a degree in graphic design and marketing. And since I was trapped in Kansas and there was no public land there, I had to find something to do. And that's when I joined my first fair board as a volunteer. And then I became a private consultant and started doing events when I moved back to Montana. So I started with beer festivals and conferences and some wildlife expositions and conventions, and then saw the position here in Missoula and thought, heck no, I ain't going to apply for that job because I know exactly how tired I'm going to be. But it is interesting to get paid for this for the first time.

Juanita Vero: [00:01:47] So. Well. And what year was that? I'm trying to remember.

Billie Brown: [00:01:50] I came here in December of 2019, so my first fair was the Covid fair 2020. And then of course, I was the lucky recipient with our crew here to unveil the finished, renovated fairgrounds in 2021.

Juanita Vero: [00:02:04] Which was an amazing, fair. Oh that was.

Billie Brown: [00:02:07] Yeah. That was.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:02:08] And every fair since.

Juanita Vero: [00:02:09] Has been amazing. Exactly.

Billie Brown: [00:02:11] All of them record breaking. So we look to do it again with the new expanded fair.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:02:15] Well, speaking of which, tell us about the new and expanded fair this year. What what, uh, what are in.

Juanita Vero: [00:02:21] July? Yeah. Very exciting.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:02:23] Tell tell us the dates. Uh, what folks can, can expect to see and all of that.

Billie Brown: [00:02:27] Well, it's not about making the fair bigger, honestly. It's about making the line shorter because we've been so lucky and so successful in the past that we decided to work with our partners, our volunteers, and our nonprofit, fabulous food trucks such as the Vikings and the corn on the cob folks, you know, to get to where we could maybe do eight days because we know that people are more free to come out on the weekends. And this gives us an opportunity with the two formats that we're proposing and we're doing this year. The first weekend of the fair will be everything you can think of with the trades and mechanical to introduce a new audience.

Juanita Vero: [00:02:59] What's the date of that first weekend?

Billie Brown: [00:03:01] July 30th 1st to August 2nd.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:03:03] Okay.

Billie Brown: [00:03:03] Then we follow up. We close down on Monday to reset and move all the livestock in, and then we go from Tuesday to Saturday with the traditional what folks think of the fair with the livestock shows on the rodeo. So again, the fairgrounds mission is about community connection and bringing a diverse, eclectic group of folks together where they are mixing together and remembering that they have 80% more in common than they do, than the 20% that we usually focus on in differences.

Juanita Vero: [00:03:30] And what give us an example of kind of that eclectic mix.

Billie Brown: [00:03:33] Sure. So like, for instance, one of the volunteer groups we work with for ticket scanning for the entire eight days of the fair is queer prom. And so they're the ones that are checking credentials when you walk into the grandstands for the rodeo and for Lords of Dirt. And so that's just, you know, one of the ways that you can take what would be considered maybe both sides of the world and have them working together and find out that they actually work really well.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:03:55] So I have got to ask it before I forget. And that is, will there be chocolate covered frozen bananas this year at the fair? No. No.

Juanita Vero: [00:04:06] Oh.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:04:08] That was just a tease last year. What the heck?

Billie Brown: [00:04:12] I'm sorry, but if you would like to go to our website, Western Montana fair.com.

Juanita Vero: [00:04:16] Oh, who were the vendors last year? I couldn't remember.

Billie Brown: [00:04:19] I wasn't sure if they're coming back. I'll have to go. Look, I can't quite remember. You caught me off guard, but they might be back.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:04:25] Oh, okay. There is some hope.

Billie Brown: [00:04:27] We worked really hard to get them here, but yeah, we do. Our fair Advisory committee goes through and chooses the food vendors for us every year. And so yeah, they might be back, but I can't remember off the top of my head if they actually are.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:04:38] Okay. Uh, hope is still in the air, so yeah, but, uh, food obviously is an item that folks need to purchase, as would be tickets to the rodeo. Tickets for the carnival rides. Talk to us a little bit about what is free and open to the public, which you can just walk onto the fairgrounds.

Billie Brown: [00:04:57] That's right. You can bring your own picnic lunch to the Western Montana Fair. We do not care. We just ask that you don't bring your own outside alcohol. So it is a park. It is your park and you can come and go through the fair at any time. It's free admission. If you do want to go into the grandstands during the day, that is free. If you want to go into the grandstands for the finale of the Lords of Dirt racing, yet it does take a ticket. So with regard to the food sales, though, I'll just tell you those food sales, this is the only time that you're going to see this great selection of food available in Missoula is during the Western Montana Fair and all those food sales. When you buy from those nonprofits and those local food trucks that we work together with, that money stays in Missoula. It isn't going to a chain or outside food vendor. We have just a couple outside food vendors. But yeah, that's all local.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:05:44] No, that's.

Billie Brown: [00:05:45] Great. And the new thing this year is that we were able to move our live music stage down by the Home Arts Building. We've moved all the camping for the carnival workers to the back of the house and now the carnival with. We're getting some additional rides this year will be at the front of house right on South Avenue, and that allowed us to put in a stage right in the same footprint that you saw at Zoo Town. So we're going to activate that space, and you no longer have to wait for your free live music till after the rodeo or after racing. Free live music starts at 7 p.m. every night. Grab a great meal, sit down, choose between your nightly entertainment for the next eight days. July 30th 1st to August 8th. It's all available to you.

Juanita Vero: [00:06:29] That's so great. Okay, you mentioned the carnival ride. So how do safety inspections work for carnival rides?

Billie Brown: [00:06:35] So in the carnival world, there are only six states that aren't regulated for carnival rides. And what I mean by that, like in the state of California, they actually have someone who works for the state, inspects the rides and then stamps them and says they're good to go out on the road. And Montana, I believe Idaho, are two of the six states that aren't regulated. So we have taken it on ourselves here at Missoula County. And we're fortunate to do that because we're a larger county fair. We hire our own third party inspector, and he is the best in the world. And so I often get news about what's happening at Disney or, you know, Texas and how they worked around it. So we have him come and he's on site. He inspects the rides before they're put up, and then as they're being put up, and then he does a final run through with our county risk and benefits officers taking it off my plate, because I sometimes have other things to do. And they go and inspect the rides one last time before they're operated. And then he remains on site, which is very unusual. Most carnival inspectors see it set up and then they leave. He remains on site, and he makes sure that if there's any incidents, he's the party reporting to me, and then I can make a decision if that ride is going to go back into operation or not. Based on his report, I don't have to take the word of the carnival operator. So lucky for us in Missoula were able to recruit because of our large audience attendance. The best in the best carnivals out there. So we do have an A rated carnival coming from California and California being the state that has absolutely set the standards on carnival regulation and operations.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:08:05] You do not want to get on a ride at a C or a D rated Carnival operation. So you mentioned adding a new weekend, another weekend this year. What else might folks expect to see that maybe they didn't see in past years?

Billie Brown: [00:08:20] Well, you know, we talk about horse racing and you know, I'm a fan. So we've brought back gaming to the fairgrounds with racing.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:08:28] Okay. Tell us the details here.

Billie Brown: [00:08:30] Yeah. Every night of the first weekend of the Western Montana Fair, from July 30th 1st to August 2nd, you have your chance to win $4,000 by attending the final races of Lords of Dirt. So when your racer wins, you win. It's kind of a play on football squares. Have you ever played football squares before?

Juanita Vero: [00:08:47] I have not, I have not.

Billie Brown: [00:08:49] It's when you buy some squares during a football game, and then the last digit of the football score at the end of that quarter, someone wins a prize of money. We're in this situation. This plays more on the on the fact that when you can go to a horse race, you might get a handicappers list, and this is where you're going to choose from that handicappers list. And you can relax for the rest of the day because your horses have been picked for you. You don't have to make that walk to the infield and check the horses out yourself. In this case, our motorcycle racers, we often don't know who they are because they qualified earlier that morning. So when you come to the Western Montana Fair this year, you'll buy a racers card for $20. And we've already drawn your racer. You know who to cheer for in each of the races. And as that racer wins, your card then goes in for another bonus entry into the prize drawing. And so we worked off season with the state all year to come up with this. And so it's a way of bringing gaming back to racing and having someone to cheer with during your Lords of Dirt, which will be changing every night with a different shaped track.

Juanita Vero: [00:09:51] Oh my goodness. So wait, so how many nights of Lords of Dirt?

Billie Brown: [00:09:54] Then there's three nights of Lords of Dirt and we have Keith Sayers FMX for the half time show. Plus we have some support.

Juanita Vero: [00:10:01] On both on all three nights. The half time. Keith Sayers.

Billie Brown: [00:10:04] Mhm. Each night. But Lords of Dirt fan draw where you can grab your race card. It will be offered all three nights.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:10:10] Boy, I am feeling lucky.

Juanita Vero: [00:10:11] I am buying tickets. Yes. Okay. Tickets can only be purchased though. July 30th 1st to August 2nd. Correct?

Dave Strohmaier: [00:10:18] Oh, can you purchase purchase them online or how does this work?

Billie Brown: [00:10:20] So yeah, so we moved to a new ticketing platform. So one of the things that you guys might not know about is the fact that carnival passes can now be bought online. We've in the past at the office, we've taken calls from folks as far away as Butte that want to come and get carnival passes, but they had to be bought in person up until this year. So now you can buy those online. You can buy a day pass. You don't even have to decide what day you're coming to the Western Montana Fair. You just need that one pass and then you can go and redeem it the day of your choice based on the weather, as most people will do. And then also the week long pass, which is now, of course, better than a week because we have eight days of the Western Montana Fair.

Juanita Vero: [00:10:57] How much does a week long pass?

Billie Brown: [00:10:59] $100.

Juanita Vero: [00:11:00] Oh my gosh. So affordable. That's fantastic.

Billie Brown: [00:11:02] Yeah. And then the new thing about the way the tickets in the grandstands are offered are youth tickets for Lords of Dirt start at $5. Our youth tickets for rodeo start at $12. It used to be you paid $35 rate and that was for all six days of the Western Montana Fair. That's no longer the case. We have rearranged it so that the seats that are front and center are carrying more of the load than the seats that are maybe on the edges and up midway. So it's more affordable and accessible for families, particularly on weeknights. And then when you get into the weekends where we're really selling out, those come at a higher price point.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:11:36] Is there a youthful rate.

Billie Brown: [00:11:38] Youthful rate? Yes, it's all youthful.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:11:40] You're all right. I guess maybe a better question is, is there a senior citizen rate? Yes there is. Okay.

Billie Brown: [00:11:46] Military, senior citizen and youth rates are there on the website. But the big thing is, is that you save $10 if you buy before the Western Montana Fair starts up after July 31st, those tickets will increase by $10 each.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:11:59] Okay, well, we are just a few weeks out from the fair. So what does it look like for you and your team these days? Uh, busy, I suspect.

Billie Brown: [00:12:08] Yes, yes. Well, actually, the fair starts for us tonight with archery shooting. Um, and then tomorrow is our fair rally where we have all of our safety debriefs with all of our volunteer groups. We all practice the whole sweep fire extinguisher training. And then we have our first setup to flip the glacier ice rink into a barn for two straight weeks. It takes us to set up that wow. And then we'll open with Lords of Dirt, which gives us a little bit more breathing space than before. The livestock shows start on Tuesday.

Juanita Vero: [00:12:39] What's your favorite part of the fair? Your favorite fair food.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:12:43] Oh, you already know my favorite fair food. But what is yours?

Billie Brown: [00:12:47] Oh, I have, like, a schedule.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:12:49] Oh, a schedule.

Juanita Vero: [00:12:50] Of.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:12:50] Favorites.

Billie Brown: [00:12:51] Like a daily cheese curd, daily corn on the cob. And then I'll usually have protein. I'll have my Viking, but then sometimes I'll switch up to the Indian taco. And then I have to have barbecue, you know, because it's late. I honestly never get to a hamburger. But if I can find a slice of pie, that's great. But I never make it over to Lemon Dairy. I can't wait in that line. So that's why we had to overhaul the fair schedule. Maybe this will be my first lemon dairy year.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:13:16] How about other aspects of the fair just in terms of, do you have a favorite that you like to visit or work on or last year?

Billie Brown: [00:13:24] I guess I'll just share this. Obviously a lot about the fair that I love. My major component is that Saturday night of the bull riding, the PRCA rodeo has wrapped up and no one's hurt. That is my favorite moment. I will finally sleep. But last year, Thursday morning, I think it was during Slack. Woke up to just solid rain and I'm just driving to the fairgrounds just, you know, just depressed. And I get to the fairgrounds and I hear all these children's voices just cheering, cheering, cheering, cheering. And it was the most magical thing. I'm like, what the heck is going on? Well, because it was raining so hard, everybody with a stroller and their young kids had packed into the Klaus Bauer Arena. And what was going on was Rodeo Slack. So they were seeing full grown men in their nice starched white shirts, getting ready to steer Russell.

Juanita Vero: [00:14:11] In that mud. That was epic.

Billie Brown: [00:14:13] So they are just gleeful that these grown adults are about to just get absolutely slaughtered in mud. And then, of course, when the gentleman jumps off onto the head of the steer and he's trying to steer, wrestle him all the way down, he couldn't get him down because he's just skating basically in mud and the kids are just yelling, you can do it. You can do it. You can do it. And then when the when he finally flips the steer over, the kids just erupted into yay! You know, and that was what was going on all morning. And that day ended up being even for the professional rodeo athletes that night, a magical day because that day also the speakers caught fire for the second time and very exciting. Yes, we have some wonderful moments in event planning. So the.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:14:57] Speakers, as in what the sound is coming out of, not not someone.

Juanita Vero: [00:15:01] Not human beings, human.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:15:03] Spontaneous human combustion.

Billie Brown: [00:15:04] But but everybody in the rodeo that night, they just the rodeo started for ten minutes late because while we watched the gentleman just, you know, change those wires out. Everybody knew in this. And when you're working with livestock, particularly, you have these moments where it's like they make the plan and you're just going to have to go along with it. And that was the thing about this night of rodeo, all the professional contractors the next morning that we work with, they were like, that was very magical. That Thursday night Missoula is just got hundreds of cities. What was so different about it? And I'm like, I think it started with the rain and the kids. And then it went into this moment where we had this fire, and then we all had to kind of improvise and see what was going to happen. But by the time everybody sat down on the rodeo started, they were fully engaged and they were welcoming to, to see the night go through. And, and they just said it was just so magical how the audience participated so well in that night. And they remembered it.

Juanita Vero: [00:15:55] That's fantastic. Okay. You're talking about rodeo and it's we've just had a really hot weekend this weekend.

Billie Brown: [00:16:00] The temperatures in Forsyth and Billings and.

Juanita Vero: [00:16:03] Miles city are almost 115 degrees. So talk to us about animal welfare and the steps that we go through.

Billie Brown: [00:16:11] Well, first and foremost, you know, we're just really lucky in Missoula because we're very particular about working with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. And, you know, we're lucky to be working with some of the best stock contractors out there. And we do that because we monitor just how does that happen? You know, how are they handling behind the chutes. and these animals are what we call scored. You know, they're prepped that they've been through the chutes that it's not their first time to town. I guess I would say also we take and have our livestock hosted on a ranch off site when they're not brought in specifically for the performance, because we are in the center of the city. Now, the smaller livestock, such as our roping cattle and our mutton busting sheep, they stay on the grounds and those animals have shade protection and all the access to fresh water and things that they can have. Of course, now when it's flooding, we have a different option. But because the Western Montana Fair is quite well known now for raining for livestock within the four-h world, this new format of the eight day fair has made it so that the livestock rolls in on Monday, which is a closed date to the public. So the livestock comes in on private. They stay only five days instead of six now, and they roll out on Sunday morning instead of Sunday evening. And we can do that in private. And that's just so much less stressful. Mhm. Yeah. So yeah, this whole new format is, is checking a lot of boxes for us. And, you know, we're very excited about it. And it also is a roadmap if we ever want to go to ten, which you guys should think about.

Juanita Vero: [00:17:42] And talk more about the quality of our livestock handling at the at the rodeo and how it's maybe different than other rodeos.

Billie Brown: [00:17:49] Sure. When you're working with professional rodeo stock contractors, they are in themselves their own watchdog group. They monitor each other to make sure that we're all at the top of the game of how livestock is handled, low stress and part of their family. So back in the days of bucking horse sale, you know, it used to be a horse that was brought in from the range. Maybe it's shown the chute for the first time and it's being bucked out. And in that moment, that's where a lot of the accidents can happen. These horses and these bulls, and particularly even more so the bulls. Now they are trained from a young age to buck. They are started out as yearlings and two year olds to enter the chute to know that the chute is a place that they can stand and they can wait to be saddled, they can wait to receive the rider, and then they can execute their mission once the gate is open. And if you are attending amateur events, sometimes they don't have that luxury of of having those animals that have been through all that training that we do, even the roping cattle that are going out have an element of training to them so that they shoot straight.

Billie Brown: [00:18:56] Same with the steer wrestling cattle. The trick is to balance freshness. So you do want horses and bulls to have time off. Also that with your roping cattle, you want them to be fresh and not stale because if they anticipate they can decide not to run out, or they can take a slower run at it, and that affects the evenness of the playing field that we need. So in the case of our roping cattle, we even bring in a scale, make sure that the right sized for the contestant that's going to be working with them, checking all those boxes. And that's an added expense for us. But we just take that extra measure here so that we can have the most competitive even playing field for it. And we. The other thing that we do is that we allow permit holders for men and women's events, which is not usually done. So women and men have equal prize money and playing field here in Missoula.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:19:45] So this is the Western Montana Fair, not just the Missoula County Fair. Can you tell us a little bit about what in your mind that means? Thinking of ourselves in a more regional scale?

Billie Brown: [00:19:58] Well, we have room to grow. I would say that primarily right now we are still the Missoula County Fair until we have our campus fully built out. We need that new livestock facility and equestrian center in order to actually bring in that open class component of the Western Montana Fair. Right now, anything open class in the Western Montana Fair is a show and go almost. We don't have room right now for llamas. We have llama interest, but we can't bring them in. We are hosting our breeding hogs in a tent on the tarmac, and we do our best to just keep it wet and cooled off. We're bursting at the seams and we are waiting to see what our new livestock facility could look like, and who our partners could be in that facility so that it is servicing all of the community year round.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:20:48] And speaking of servicing the community year round, we've been talking about the fair event, but you've got stuff going on out there at the fairgrounds all year round. Do you want to remind folks of what's going on out there? And yeah, yeah.

Billie Brown: [00:21:04] We're totally activated. In fact, the postman came in the other day and he's like, how in the world are you still doing this? So basically from April on, we have something every weekend and we overhauled our rental client base in a way that allows for large community connecting events that take over the entire campus. They can book sooner and cheaper than, say, a private event. We're not against weddings, but you know, we hope you only have the one. And so that makes you a one off client. And we have to do a lot of hand-holding for that. So we backfill with things like banquets and weddings after we have those community event calendars set. And that's what allowed us to bring in something of size and scale as Zoo Town Music Festival. So, you know, this year we started out in April with the Quilters Guild show, and then we had the University Rodeo. Then we have Jackson Construction brought in Missoula under construction, and then we had several markets. We have the 406 consignment market, the little red truck market, and now we've peppered in the big Sky gun show. Then we have the five Valley Kennel Dog show that is pretty big. And that was one that had a bit of rain. So it impacted the grass strip just a little bit. After the dog show left, we had the Zoo Town Festival set up and they're in and out within a week.

Billie Brown: [00:22:22] Then, two days after Zoo Town was over, we had MISCON, which activated the north and south ends of the fairgrounds, which was a much larger footprint than Zoo Town. Then after that, we have to shut down. In the best tourism months, we have to shut down the Western Montana Fair because we're limited on labor from July to September. We just can't physically unload, set up the fair and clean up after the fair with the staff that we have. So we're looking at ways to become more efficient, whether that's through a new equipment purchases or where livestock panels are set up quicker and faster, or other things that we can do so that we can start bringing back more rental clients in those months, meaty months of July and August and September become more efficient in the western Montana fair. And again, I'm not advocating for a new livestock equestrian center, but yes, I am advocating for a livestock equestrian center because if we had that compartmentalized over here, we could then just activate the 25 display cases we need for the commercial building. So there's all kinds of ways to look at how we can improve our operations internally and externally, because we are drawing a lot more events.

Juanita Vero: [00:23:27] How can folks get involved with the fair.

Billie Brown: [00:23:29] Through the green team right now? Because with the eight day fair, we have transitioned most of our volunteer opportunities to be with nonprofit groups. So, for instance, Queer Prom has taken over all ticket scanning. They can then go out there and look for partners to help them ticket scan in trade. They get buildings to rent for their queer prom event. They also get cash from the county. The same with our ushers. We took Kiwanis and we put them in charge of ushering. And so we've just moved into a more service club based. And we found new groups like we have rugby checking you for those internal stakeholders entering our parking lot. So there'll be a more rigorous check there and, and things like that. So the only individual like I want to help with the Western Montana Fair is at this point the green team.

Juanita Vero: [00:24:17] And what's the green team?

Billie Brown: [00:24:18] The green team is the team that has spearheaded all the recycling, composting and trash sorting that you see at the Western Montana Fair when we partnered up with Home Resource and Missoula Compost, what happened is, was this wonderful education opportunity because we had five days of the Western Montana Fair at the time, and people went one day of the fair. They saw the hard work put in by these volunteers. The next day, they were like, we get the assignment and they started sorting their own trash. They started taking care of things, and by the third day we weren't sorting trash anymore. And then that bled over into River City Roots Fest that bled over now into Zoo Town. So the green team now the fair is kind of the, the cutting edge. Like we're going to incorporate this new policy for sorting trash and we're going to practice it. Then the rest of the time in other locations. And we share all of our resources from our containers to our signage and everything. So you can go to Western Montana fair.com. Be a member of the green team, and you're part of something that's really special that I've not seen going through all the other stock shows in the nation that I get to attend. I'm hoping to invite some of those folks from, you know, Fort Worth and San Antonio up here so that they can see how we take care of trash, and that it actually turned into what is the gardens next to us at the Rocky Mountain Gardens and Exploration Center and how I think it's we're at 80% of trash diversion from, from the.

Juanita Vero: [00:25:41] From the landfill.

Billie Brown: [00:25:42] From the landfill. So we want to be at 90 and we're actually adding another component to the back of house, which is probably too much detail for you all. But, you know, after we think we've done it, we're going to do it again. We're going to do our own Wayne before it actually leaves on the trucks. We're going to see. We really do think we are at 90%, but it's reporting at 80 are fantastic.

Juanita Vero: [00:26:03] So as a kid, Four-h was something that I've always associated with the Western Montana Fair. So tell us, how can we better support for each.

Billie Brown: [00:26:11] Well, the numbers are growing. I think they're up by 100. And it's been extraordinary to have the extension office on the fairgrounds. Like I've never seen that done anywhere else. And to see the Jerry Marks Exploration Center just activated until 10:00 every night with the four H kids coming in and doing their projects, has just strengthened the fair.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:26:31] And that physical space will be used again this year.

Billie Brown: [00:26:34] Oh yeah.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:26:35] So fair season.

Billie Brown: [00:26:35] You bet. So this will be the second year that the Jerry marks building will be open hosting exhibits. So you'll find all the four H exhibits on the first floor in the balsam room. Then on the first floor in the lupine lab, you'll have the agriculture exhibits and then on the third floor, for the first time ever, the demonstration kitchen, which is gorgeous. It's going to house all the culinary exhibits, and we have all new coolers to set that space apart. So you get to spend a lot of time in air conditioning this year as well. I will say we have a sponsor, REIC equipment, is air conditioning. The commercial building for the first time ever. It's never been air conditioned before.

Juanita Vero: [00:27:12] Oh, wow.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:27:12] So are they hauling in a unit or units? So? So no longer just the big old swamp cooler thing? Mhm.

Billie Brown: [00:27:20] Full and proper air conditioning in the exhibit hall. Yep.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:27:24] Excellent. Wow. When you said the commercial building. I was starting to break out in a sweat already.

Billie Brown: [00:27:29] But the only buildings.Not air conditioned will be the show ring and the culinary building, which we are working on. Different names.

Juanita Vero: [00:27:38] Changing the name.

Billie Brown: [00:27:39] Some of those names. They're confusing, but is because it's the bar. We need you warm. So.

Juanita Vero: [00:27:44] Ah! Ah. Well, where can folks go to buy, um, arena tickets and get more information?

Billie Brown: [00:27:52] They can get that at Western Montana fair.com and only buy tickets from the Western Montana fair.com as any ticket that you're buying elsewhere. We have found that you're paying sometimes two and three times more money. Oh, wow. Yeah. Your tickets are not expensive there at Western Montana fair.com. If you're buying them somewhere and they are not sending you there your ticket seat right away, that's because they're scamming you. Do not buy from Google. Google is how people end up with the wrong tickets. They just Google Western Montana Fair tickets and think that they're going to get them. What's happening is you're getting spam, so be sure you go to the exact URL of the Western Montana fair.com or come down to the office.

Juanita Vero: [00:28:29] Oh, and we forgot to ask about exhibitors. And it's probably going to be a little too late because that date is closing. But but tell us how how that works.

Billie Brown: [00:28:38] Sure. So exhibiting is free to enter. It's not like a gallery or anything else where you have to put an entry fee in. Entering the Western Montana Fair is always free, and we do have time now. You can still get those chocolate chip cookies in anything baked, any canned goods, all your culinary departments, agriculture departments can still take entries up until July 31st, but the tabletop art quilting. Most of those pieces are going to close on July 16th. And for those that do well, we pay out, you know, $25 for grand champion and then 15 for reserve and ten for first place. And if you enter the most in the department and you're the high point earner, then you get another $100. So, I mean, it's a great way and it's and you're always competing against your own peers. So the youth groups are divided into three and the adult groups are divided into three. We've added a professional and a teacher's division so they can compete against themselves. So you are only competing against those in your own age and ability?

Dave Strohmaier: [00:29:37] Sure. The commissioners come up with an entry this year of some sort. What do you think?

Juanita Vero: [00:29:40] Oh we should, we can't. We can't make this decision without slotting it.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:29:43] Oh, we got to publicly notice what it is that we're working on. I forgot. Is there anything that we've, uh, not asked that you'd like to get a plug in for?

Billie Brown: [00:29:53] I would say that we are adding a four way stop at Stevens Avenue and South Avenue. So all public parking to the Western Montana Fair will be handled through the Sentinel School Band. And that's the way we're sending like about 20 people to Europe now. All those proceeds go to them. And there is a four way stop that will be activated temporarily at South Avenue and Stevens. And when you come into the fairgrounds and park, you're going to want to remember that you're probably leaving a different way so that we don't have people trying to swim upstream at the end of the night, follow the exit signs again, we have our partners at REIC Equipment that are helping us with that.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:30:33] So excellent. Well, before we close today, in our standard tradition, anything that you'd like to share with us in terms of something inspirational, nugget of wisdom, good book, bit of culture.

Billie Brown: [00:30:46] Yeah. I mean, I'm just grateful for the partners we have on the fairgrounds. We are going through growing pains, but it takes a lot of people to make this all happen. So the Department of Ecology and extension, fabulous partners like they're heading up and spearheading things that we couldn't lift from the office. They got the Ada parking handled. They got wheelchairs for those senior citizens. That or other individuals who might be feeling a little too hot, handled the Department of Risk and benefits that they take over the safety component for us. They with watching over the carnival inspector, they take daily tours around the food trucks, cords, hoses. They kind of keep the four H kids in line, you know, let's remember to to coil those things up. And then we have, you know, Glacier Ice Rink has been on the campus for 30 years and they have been there to grow their facility. And then they have to tear it down. And it is something that is just if you think of a small business, you run a business all year and then all of a sudden you have to tear it down. That piece is so critical for us to go forward with the livestock. You know, livestock has been has only 30 days on the fairgrounds campus. In order to grow livestock, we're going to have to grow that footprint in order for hockey to grow. They want to stay up year round. So, I mean, we were just so grateful that we still have a relationship where we can say we can move in and use their space and then same and have it reciprocated.

Billie Brown: [00:32:12] In addition to that, we have the butterfly house. Now that's that's also in the same space where they need to have operating a business in the middle of a event center. So when you come to the Western Montana fair and you pay for your parking with the Sentinel Band, they're going to give you a coupon that you can go ahead and take into the butterfly house and validate your parking for the first 50 people of every day. So if you as soon as you buy your ticket to the butterfly house, you get your $10 back for your parking. If you're not one of the 51st people to come in, well, then you can still use that coupon to buy one. Get one free for use in the September and October at the butterfly House. So just working with our partners as we grow, we're we have the Zoo Town Festival and people are pretty excited about that. And it's a real head turner, but So we're about to add more of these concerts in in a smaller scale. So we really do rely on our partners and our neighborhoods. We'll walk out into the neighborhoods as soon as the fair is over and debrief from them too, and make sure they, they tend to love that Zoo Town Festival more than the fair, because Zoo Town Festival folks are still using designated parking. Fair goers have been coming for 75 years. They kind of know where the neighborhood parking is, and they tend to use it a little bit more. So think of Sentinel Band when you're dodging the $10 parking fee.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:33:29] Well, thanks for joining us today, Billie. Great to have you back. A lot of exciting things going on. Folks should visit WesternMontanafair.com. Don't use.org. You might be buying tickets for Ravalli County Fair. If you do that. But Western Montana fair.com and look forward to all of the fun happenings that are on the horizon.

Billie Brown: [00:33:50] Thanks again for sharing.

Juanita Vero: [00:33:51] Thanks, everyone.

Josh Slotnick: [00:33:55] Thanks for listening to the agenda. If you enjoy these conversations, it would mean a lot if you rate and review the show on whichever podcast app you use.

Juanita Vero: [00:34:03] And if you know a friend who would like to keep up with what's happening in local government, be sure to recommend this podcast to them.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:34:09] The agenda with the Missoula County Commissioners is made possible with support from Missoula Community Access Television, better known as MCAT, and our staff in the Missoula County Communications Division.

Josh Slotnick: [00:34:21] If you have a question or a topic you'd like us to discuss on a future episode, email it to Communications@missoulacounty.us.

Juanita Vero: [00:34:29] To find out other ways to stay up to date with what's happening in Missoula County, go to missoula.com/updates.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:34:36] Thanks for listening.