by John Dowd
By far the biggest and more recognized event of the year in Ravalli County must be the county fair. However, the fairgrounds that hosts this huge event has a lot of other things going on. In fact, there may be much more to the fairgrounds than most people are aware. According to Melissa Saville, the fairgrounds manager, she was excited that the fairgrounds was recently recognized for all the work they have been doing over the years.
This year the Ravalli County Fairgrounds was recognized by the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce with the Economic Development Award. The award was presented during the Bitterroot Chamber of Commerce banquet in May.
“We have been so busy bringing in new events and promoting new events to come here,” said Saville. She believes that has a lot to do with the recognition. The efforts of Saville and her staff have brought in numerous new events over the last few years. According to Saville, this increased activity directly overflows into local hotels, restaurants, stores and the general community.
To quantify all they have been doing, Saville noted that last year, they booked 46 out of the 52 weekends, not including all the events during weekdays, and their calendar currently has bookings out five years. They host events like the fair, gun shows, craft shows and markets, art shows, concerts, rodeos, conventions, organization banquets and much more. They do this for organizations like Bitterroot Building Industry Association, Ravalli County Fish and Wildlife Association and other conservation groups, local businesses and anyone else, big or small, looking for an event venue. According to Saville, the fairgrounds team is “just trying to take advantage of this awesome property.”
A lot of what they do is possible with help from the Ravalli County Fairgrounds Foundation. This relatively new organization helps fund extra projects, such as the new gazebo, which the county is unable to fund on its own. One future project they have in mind, possibly to be installed by next year, are year-round bathrooms. Saville hopes this would further promote more off-season events. They are constantly looking at new ways to bring business and events to the area. When she does book events, they are planning on doing more advertising and promotion to grow event popularity.
“We just want to let people know that we are an asset that is underused,” added Saville. “People just think about us as ‘the fair’,” but they can do so much more, she said.
Though they do charge for events because there is an upkeep cost, but the building rentals have very reasonable pricing, said Saville, especially for the event industry. They want to increase the popularity of hosting things like weddings, and to become a more affordable option for people, yet to give them a great location.
“We just have a lot of ways of being able to help people,” said Saville.
Another thing Saville wanted to let the community and interested parties know regards their updated alcohol policy. According to Saville, many people may not be aware that they now can have alcohol on the premises. There is an urban myth that in the original deed from the Daly family, there was a statement prohibiting alcohol. The myth further expresses that Daly gave the land to the county.
However, neither of these statements are true. There is nothing in the deed mentioning anything about alcohol, and the county bought the property. In fact, the issue came down to a county ordinance. According to Saville, since the adoption of a recent new county ordinance, the fairgrounds has a policy that alcohol now can be served, unless it interferes with the fairgrounds’ family-friendly atmosphere. No alcohol will be allowed 14 days before or after the county fair.
Since the new policy took effect in July, the only limiting factor regarding serving alcohol on the premises is licensing. In order for an event to sell and serve alcohol in the fairgrounds, the organizing body or servers will be required to obtain appropriate licensing and permits.
This update in alcohol policy is important, because one major detractor during summer events has been the fact that many of the buildings in the fairgrounds are without air conditioning, meaning they get extremely hot during the summer. This is also the time of year when many people would like to have a cool and refreshing alcoholic beverage. Now that events can be held out of buildings and alcohol can be served, Saville hopes more event sponsors will consider the fairgrounds. She said the former policy had been a detriment to some events in the past, because the event organizers wanted to pair food with alcohol. Now they can.
With these changes, the fairgrounds can now host a further variety of events anywhere on the property, which Saville hopes will be a boon for the fairgrounds, drawing more interested group events.
All of this trickles down to the local economy and brings more money and business to the area, said Saville.
When asked her thoughts on the recent Chamber award, Saville said, “This is just another tool in our toolbox to offer events.” She also said that it “shows that the employees are going above and beyond.”
To learn more about the fairgrounds and the opportunities there, interested parties can visit the organization website, www.rcfair.org. There, a calendar of events can be found. The fairgrounds also has a Facebook with a brand new live podcast about things going on at the grounds.
For more information about the Ravalli County Fairgrounds Foundation, parties can visit their website, www.ravallicountyfairgroundsfoundation.org.