Ozark Empire Fair opens gates on Thursday

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The gates opened for the 88th annual Ozark Empire Fair just over an hour ago.

Dubbed ‘summer’s biggest party,’ the fair runs through August 3 and is expected to bring in more than a hundred thousand people.

OzarksFirst spoke to fair officials about prep, safety and what’s new at the Ozark Empire Fair.

“We try to work really hard to find different thrill shows and different types of things to entertain our show,” Aaron Owen said.

Aaron Owen with the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds says they try to give fairgoers a new experience every year.

“We got the accent show, which is a BMW stunt show that’s down here. We got a different strolling animal show. A new restaurant that we didn’t have before. It’s in a new arena. We’ve got a magic show in the west hall for life and arts and all the livestock exhibits,” Owen said.

The preparation for the fair isn’t done overnight.

“We started a month ago getting things checked out and electrically and just all different kinds of stuff that goes into it. We had a meeting back in May with police, fire, health department, OEM cert and start prepping and staff,” Owen said.

Kevin Bosley is with Wade Shows and brings more than a dozen rides to the fair.

“There’s a lot more to it than setup. First, you come to an empty parking lot and we start taking measurements and making marks on the ground. So basically we build a little city out of an empty parking lot,” Bosley said.

The state of Missouri’s Amusement Ride Safety Program looks over the rides before anyone gets on and Bosley says inspections are done daily.

“We’re a very fortunate industry on the inspection part because we take everything apart every week. And a lot of people say, ‘oh, they take it apart all the time.’ But we also get to see pieces of the equipment that amusement parks don’t because they don’t take it apart,” Bosley said.

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