The Missouri fair opened this morning to a discounted ticket price and throngs of fairgoers.
Organizers are counting on value for the dollar to attract the crowds and farmers are counting on the spotlight to improve their situation.
With the opening day ticket price only a dollar, the lines formed early for admission to the fair, challenging last year's first day attendance of more than 46,000 people. Even Gov. Nixon paid his buck and passed through the turnstiles, pausing to greet other fairgoers afterward.
"We're excited,” State Fair Director Mark Wolfe said. “We've got beautiful weather a great crowd comin' in this morning. We've got a lot of entertainment and a lot of things for folks to see today.”
While most families focus on the midway attractions, the administration pushes the spotlight at Missouri agriculture.
"There is no more important component of both our shared Missouri heritage and our present economic engine than farming and agriculture,” Wolfe said.
On this first day of the fair, Nixon put the spotlight on pork, cutting the ribbon on the new Missouri pork association eatery and serving up the first pork steaks sold there.
"This marks thirty years for us here at the Missouri State Fairgrounds...and we're excited about the endless possibilities for our new building,” Missouri Pork Association Bill Kessler said.
The building was constructed with major financial support from companies like Cargill and MFA. Construction was started just last February.
"To complete this building in that time is truly, truly amazing,” State Fair Commission Chairman Elizabeth Schlueter said. “It lets you know the dedication people have to the pork industry in Missouri.”
Pork prices took a beating in 2008.
And this year, some consumers mistakenly assumed you could get swine flu by eating pork products.
Even so, market analysts expect prices to do much better in the final part of the year.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKRCG