by BRIAN COOPER
TH executive editor
Three myths:
* Santa Claus works only one day a year.
* Pastors work only one day a week.
* The Dubuque County Fair Association's general manager works only one week a year.

What are some of the misperceptions you deal with about the Dubuque County Fair?
Probably the biggest misconception is that the community thinks we're county- and state-funded. They think that everything we spend comes from somebody else; in most instances they think it comes from their tax dollars.

They don't realize that we have to earn it. We get very little monetary support from the state -- about $10,000 and on some occasions some from the county. Anything that comes is restricted to capital improvements, period. Infrastructure. It can't be used for operating expenses. So that means when you spend $150,000 on entertainment, $150,000 has to be earned somewhere.

I do get a little defensive. I was at a ball game a couple of summers ago, and this mother at a game had said that the fair was almost as expensive as going to Disneyland. I could not not say something. I had to throw in: "Well, you know, your hotel, your air fare, all those things; that fair is much cheaper to come to than Disney World or Adventureland or any of those places. Well, I know she didn't know who I was or she may not have said it.

The other misconception -- I was asked this tons of times when I was first hired -- is, "What are you going to do the rest of the year?" They don't realize that we host 300 events a year besides the fair. It's not just a fair. It's a fairgrounds complex and we just do so much more, with the weddings and the auctions and livestock shows and horse shows and NASCAR racing. So, we're really very diverse.

About how much money does it take to put on the Dubuque County Fair each summer?
It really varies. Our operating budge is just over a half-million dollars for the whole year. We run a very tight budget. The fair is probably about $385,000 -- and that's just the entertainment and the tents and the fuel and all of those labor costs, things like that, that are associated with it.

What are the biggest challenges you have from a financial standpoint?
Probably the biggest challenge is just the entertainment value. Every year, you get requests from people. "Why don't you get Bon Jovi?" "Why don't you bring in Tim McGraw and Faith Hill?" People assume that you just call up their agent and say, "Hey, can you come to the fair? I have $50,000 to spend." But it's really not that easy. So that probably is the hardest portion of our budget to control because we're at the mercy of what's going to sell and who's available at the time.

We have two days to put that show on, or that six-day time frame, to bring in the NASCAR racing and events like that. We don't have any fudge room, so it's just what's available and what we can afford at the time. Some years we're over and some years under. With trying to keep in the tradition of the fair by offering some paid grandstand seating and offering way more free grandstand seating, it's a challenge because you have to know, are people going to come early? Are they going to buy food? Are they going to drink beer? Are they going to buy soda and beverages? Are they going to use the midway? All of those things we have to take into account when purchasing any of our entertainment, because that's what pays for the entertainment itself. The ticket sales just don't cover it.

So we shouldn't look for the Rolling Stones this July in Dubuque?
Not unless they want to donate their time! We're a non-profit. If they want to come on their own accord, we'd be happy to host them, but I don't know where we'd put everybody.

How much does it cost? Go back to last summer's grandstand featured acts. What's a ballpark figure?
For two nights, our budget last year was $135,000 and that was with no incidentals. It didn't include lodging. It didn't include transportation. It didn't include catering. It didn't include the 40 pages of rider requests that they had for the certain kind of water they want at their bus and things like that. That was just strictly to get the band here and on stage. That's for both nights.

I'm looking at your posters here to see who we had last year.
Patty Loveless. Who else did we have ?

Huey Lewis and the News.

That was a real big surprise for us. We thought that they would do well, but the community just loved it. He got on stage and he looked and sounded the same as he did 20 years ago. So that was a really good success for us. And then we did Patty Loveless with Steve Azar and Brian McComas on our country night.

So, they're in that $135,000 range?
All of them together, about $135,000.

Then you have a lot of other expenses associated with that.
Like I said, a lot of times you have to provide transportation. Sometimes you have to provide backline. If they're flying into town, it means that they're not bringing their instruments with them, so now you have to go out and find a company to come and bring the drum sets and the guitars and everything else. This doesn't happen very often but when you want someone bad enough -- if it means that they have to fly from point A to point B to get there -- sometimes you have to take the risk and spend a little bit of extra money. But all of the entertainment on the grounds, the Big Top, the Coca-Cola Stage, the Beer Garden Stage, all of those, every year they get more expensive.

It's a challenge because I look at things through the eyes of my kids (Sydney and Lexi). I really run a lot of things past them and say, "Well, what do you think of the roller blading ice skaters?" Or, "What do you think of Bruiser, the world's biggest dog?" So I get the feedback from those kids. Because if the kids enjoy it, the parents come, the grandparents come and they come back every year.

I know from some of the few shows that the TH has put on that there are lots of little stipulations that some of these big-name performers put in. They're written into the contracts. What are some of the more unusual requirements that you've have to deal with?
My husband, Charlie, volunteers the week of the fair to help me and he really takes care of the bands. He's kind of the runner for the bands. He had to come up with someone to do laundry for Poison. They had been on tour on their bus. We were just in shock. I don't even know that it was part of the rider, but you know, here they are. They have to go on stage and they don't have anything clean to wear and we had to find a company that could do their laundry. That was probably the most bizarre.

Wouldn't that hurt Poison's image, to wear clean clothes?
You'd think.

Can you give us a preview of the lineup for the Summer of 2006?
We have Blake Shelton signed for our country act. And we have a secondary act that will open that's going to be just as great but we have not signed a contract for that yet. And we still are searching for our rock act. We know that Blake Shelton with the hits that he's had in the last summer and still radio play, it's going to be a really good show for us this year.

So, you still could work in the Rolling Stones if they come through?
Sure. Van Halen, Rolling Stones, CCR. Could be any of them, you know.

How did you get interested in this line of work?
I think I probably always thought I would be ... well, actually, this is kind of funny. When I was a little girl, I remember watching "The Love Boat" all the time. Remember "The Love Boat"? I used to watch it with my grandmother. I wanted to be Julie McCoy, the cruise director. I thought that would be like the best job ever, being able to plan parties and get people involved and be able to talk to people all the time and greet them when they came on the boat or the fairgrounds or whatever it is. I think I always had that in my mind and really, that's what I do. I'm an event director; I just don't have a boat. I have 96 acres of green grass and asphalt.

You had some other types of jobs in tourism and travel and even the gaming industry, but this is what you were thinking about, or shooting for, over the years?
It was like me taking everything I ever wanted to do when I grew up and saying, "This is what I want to do," and they turned around and said, "OK, here's your job." Everything that I enjoy doing, I get to do on a daily basis. I couldn't ask for anything better. I'm very lucky. And there's not a lot of people out there that can say that they like their job that much.

What makes your job so special for you?
Probably the diversity. I mean, one day I can be wearing blue jeans helping paint down in the barns and the next day I'm dealing with one of our major sponsors. I can be in a suit one day and jeans the next. It's just really that diverse.

We're actually a big business with lots of acreage and lots of buildings, but when it comes down to it, we've got three full-time people and about 30 part-time people and then the rest are volunteers. So it's just a variety every day.

That's all the good stuff. What makes it not-so-great a day at the fairgrounds for you?
It's really tough to hear people compare your fair to other fairs. We get a lot of, "Oh, the Jones County Fair does this," or, "The Delaware County Fair does this," or, "The State Fair does this." Each one of us fairs in the state of Iowa is different. We're all unique. Some of them aren't open except for their five-day fairs. Some are only ag-based. Some don't do carnivals. Some are open year-round like we are. Some are state-funded and county-funded. So, to compare what we do here to a neighboring fair that may be getting county funding, or may not be, it's just so different. And that really gets frustrating.

That's some of the first things out of people's mouths when they know that I work at the fair: "Why can't you afford to get this entertainment?" It's just not that easy. And we're not the Jones County Fair. Each one of us counties has our own unique fair. I think it would just be nice that people in the community recognize that we are unique to our community. And we're here for our community and not for anybody else's. That probably is the most frustrating thing, really.

Now, I don't want to frustrate you, but can you talk just a bit about Jones County Fair? Because over the years, they've gotten some big-name talent. So they have a different approach to that. So what are they doing and, from your perspective, what are they doing? What type of investment are they making to bring in maybe a higher-tier act?
I can say with some certainty that I know that their budget for the acts that they bring in, especially their national acts, is much greater than ours. I can't tell you how they fund it. It's just like they probably can't tell you how we fund ours. And it's the routing. I mean, there will be a year where we've had, like the year we had Montgomery Gentry and Poison, we had a great lineup compared to Jones County. But it just happened that we're a week apart and those acts were in our neighborhood on those certain days. You can't control that. There's not an amount of money in the world that we could afford to pay to make that routing change. So it really just depends. Some years you're lucky; some years you struggle. And they do a great job.

But it all again boils down to just the amount of money you have to spend and timing. Timing is so crucial. People just don't realize how important that is.

Could you explain a little more about that? A particular act might be at point A, maybe central Illinois, and they're booked in eastern Nebraska for three days later. You have that one day to work them in, if at all.
Right. Exactly. Routing is all about what their tour schedule is. And these acts are going to fill their tour schedule first and then take us as secondary concerts. I mean, they're going to take the giant stadium, Soldier Field and The Mark in the Quad Cities because they can accommodate more people, they get a better ticket price than what they may get at a county fair, or any festival for that matter. Really, there's an infusion of festivals and events that are buying that name entertainment, as well. So just because our fair is this week doesn't mean that there's not 10 other fairs between point A and point B that are also that same week who maybe have more money than we have. It's very complex. It doesn't sound like it, but when you're trying to book something, it can be frustrating, but you just do the best that you can.

Regarding finances: It wasn't too many years ago that the Fair Association was in some serious financial problems.
Absolutely. Nearly a half-million dollars in debt. That was before my time. Not long before my time. My first year, they paid off the debt to Dubuque Bank & Trust. That was a phenomenal feeling. They did it in four years. Half a million dollars in debt and still operated and still made improvements to the grounds. You've got to attribute that to the board of directors. They were strong in the community. The community said, "You need to file bankruptcy." You remember the articles. I mean, it wasn't a pretty sight out here. They said, "No, we're not going to let it go. It's too important. It's too much of a resource for the community. We can't dissolve it." They did everything they could, including doing most of the labor. Coming out and painting and cleaning the grounds and mowing grass and helping with events just to save that dollar so that it could be put toward the debt.

While you're not rolling in dough, you're definitely in a better spot than your predecessors were just a few years ago.
Yes, most definitely. We're still very cautious. But we're not in the financial pain or trouble that we were in because we plan. And using volunteers to help with things during the fair, during the year. Committee work. Taking on some of the responsibility that we can maintain a better payroll. It's pretty amazing. The people that are involved in this organization - be it paid staff all the way to volunteers and directors - it's in them. It's in their hearts because they wouldn't give as much time if it wasn't important to them.

You can't help but think that that probably keeps you on your toes, too. If you've got volunteers putting in that much time and effort, you, as paid staff, had better give it your all all the time, too.
Yeah, we do. There are times we eat, drink and sleep here. That's just the way it is.

The great thing is we really foster a family environment. When I have to work a banquet, my kids come out. They clear tables. They pour coffee. My husband works at the pay line. We're all here together. Just like the directors' spouses come and their kids come. So they've really done a great job of building a family environment. It's like a second family. If it wasn't, you couldn't do it. If I couldn't stay home when my kids were sick from school because it was a slow day, it would be a lot harder to put in that Saturday. But they give that flexibility. It's a good environment.

You spend a lot of time here at work. What do you like to do in your spare time - assuming you have spare time?
It depends on the time of year, of course. You know, people would think right before fair is probably the hardest to have that free time, but that's the best time. Then it's amazing. Early summer, I get to camp. I get to go boating. We get to do fun things with our family, vacations. And then fair comes and then from that point on, there is no free time again.

We do a lot of camping. We have a motor home. Then we also have a boat, so we get to do a little boating on the Mississippi. Charlie and I are really drawn to the water and drawn to the Mississippi, but that's where we met, kind of where it all started.

Other things? What about with your daughters? You mentioned going to a ball game or something. What activities are they involved in?
Last year, was the first summer that we took off from everything because we just felt overloaded as a family. We weren't doing as much camping as we wanted. We were rushing from point A to point B all the time. You'd get off work, it was fast food, it was go to this game, go to this practice, pick this kid up here. There just wasn't enough time to enjoy ourselves and family. So, last year was the first time we just stepped back and said, "We're all going to dump the extracurricular activities. No golf, no volleyball, no softball and let's just see how it goes." It was good, but I don't think they'll do it again this year. I think they all want to be involved in things.

Getting back to the fair: How do you measure success?
We don't measure it by money because we could have a great year attendance wise and still not be as profitable as we want to be. But really the success comes from the evaluations that we do. We ask our exhibitors. We ask our concessionaires. We ask patrons. Really, that's what's most important.

Really, it all just boils down to what does the community think? What do they have to say? Did they like it? Did they not like it? Were there lots of people here? Weren't there lots of people here?

Any surprises for this year's fair?
There are going to be a lot of changes. Our board, employees and volunteers did a brainstorming session in September, right after fair when things were fresh in our minds. We said, "You know, we've been doing the same thing maybe for five or six years." Not necessarily the same face or places, but the general consensus of the fair was the same. And we decided that we really needed to energize things again. If not for the people that come every year, for ourselves - to stay motivated and to make sure that we're providing the best product that we can in the community.

I think you're going to see lots of really great exciting changes. We're going to have three nights of stock car racing, instead of the two nights. We're going to do Tuesday and Wednesday this year. Then again on Sunday. We have the NTPA tractor pull, which is always huge. Everybody loves the big super semis and the pro stock tractors that come out and pull.

Probably the most exciting thing, I think, is going to happen is we're taking our free exhibit park stage, which is sponsored by Coca-Cola, and we're going to run competitions on that stage all day, every day. Whether it be karaoke, to mom-calling, to husband-calling, to yodeling, to longest ponytail to the ugliest mullet. Twins, triplets and more. Just all different sorts of competitions.

What I'm most excited about that is that the whole community can get involved. It's not just a 4-H or FFA or an agricultural base that can come out and compete in the fair. Now everybody's opened to it. Then our Big Top stage, which is sponsored by Hy-Vee, will still host that regional entertainment, that family-style entertainment that everybody loves to get out of the sun and sit in the Big Top tent and watch those kinds of shows.

I'm glad I asked, because now I've got a little head start. I can start working on my mullet.
There you go. You'd be surprised. You know, the worst thing about that, as I walk through town and I'm at Target or wherever, and I see somebody with one, I look at my husband and ... and he goes, "Don't tell them about the mullet contest." Because I think maybe if they knew, they'd come out. But maybe they don't even know they have a mullet. I don't want to offend anyone. But it's going to be really a lot of fun. It's going to be different this year.