President’s Message Terry Atchley

OFFICERS

President

Terry Atchley

Hardee County Fair

PO Box 1236

Wauchula, FL 33873

407-908-8164 atchleyterry@gmail.com

First Vice President

Come One Come All to the Main Event.

The 2023 Florida Federation of Fairs & Livestock Shows Convention and Zone 2 meeting. This year’s convention will be held May 18-20 at the Caribe Royale in Orlando.

Plans for the convention are underway and the Florida Federation of Fairs Board of Directors would like to cordially invite you to come be with us as we celebrate “The Greatest Fairs on Earth.”

The convention will have something for everyone as we educate each other at table and panel discussions. We will have plenty of opportunities for networking and dedicated times in the trade show.

We will continue our traditions of inductions into the FFF Hall of Fame and the Associate of the Year Award.

So don’t delay, go to floridafairs.org to register and book your hotel reservations for this wonderful annual event.

Details and a tentative program, as well as information about preconvention activities are included here in The Faircracker

See page 12 for the Giles Ellis Memorial Shoot Out and page 15 for the Mix N Mingle event put on by YPI. This is their scholarship fundraiser so they need all of us to help make it a success.

Let’s come together as “The Greatest Fairs On Earth!”

Hal Porter, Citrus County Fair

Second Vice President

Fran Crone, SW FL & Lee County Fair

Secretary/Treasurer

Rita DeMier Lincoln, South Florida Fair

Immediate Past President

Rhonda Ward, Collier Fair

DIRECTORS

Eddie Cora, Miami-Dade County Fair

Cheryl Flood, Florida State Fair Authority

Mark Harvey, North Florida Fair

Suzanne Holcomb, Hillsborough County Fair

Bill Olson, Greater Jacksonville Ag Fair

Jay Spicer, Martin County Fair

Shelly Terrell, Northeast Florida Fair

Stacey Wade, Lake County Fair

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS

Robert Smith, Robert Smith Presents Jay Strates, Strates Shows

HONORARY DIRECTORS

Geoffrey Patterson, Florida Farm Bureau

Michelle Faulk, FDACS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dan West P.O. Box 368

Palmetto, FL 34220-0368

813-763-0161 dwest@floridafairs.org

Hello Florida Federation Members!

I trust everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is ready for fairs to roll through Florida. Since our last newsletter, many of our Florida Fairs had folks attending the IAFE Convention in Indianapolis.

Everyone had a great time getting to see fair friends from all parts of the country and the world. It was a great time for us to gather and discuss issues surrounding our great industry.

The fair season in Florida has started off tremendously with early reports showing increases over last year. We were able to visit at Manatee County, South Florida Fair, Florida State Fair, Hardee County and Pasco. We will be out and about at other upcoming fairs as well.

In the coming weeks, a contingency of us will be traveling to Tallahassee to participate in the Florida Farm Bureau Day event to meet and speak with legislators about the Florida Fair Industry. We should never miss a chance to educate folks about the mission of fairs and what they do for our communities.

The registration for the 2023 Florida Federation of Fairs and Zone 2 Convention is underway. The Convention dates are May 18 the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando.

Please go to floridafairs.org to make your hotel accommodations, order trade show booths and register for the event. You can pay online or print the forms and send a check.

Also, make plans to attend the YPI event on May 17th where we will be able to learn to throw an axe at Bigfoot Axe Throwers. The YPI have a great evening lined up for everyone. That should be a lot of fun!

The 2023 Giles Ellis Event “Fun Shoot” will be held on the morning of May 17th at Polk Sporting Clays which is located at the Florida FFA Leadership Training Center near Haines City. Go to our website to register for these great opportunities to have fun and hang out with fair friends.

In the coming weeks, please take time to get out and visit some of our wonderful fairs. We always learn something when we least expect it. Remember, It’s Always a Fair Day in Florida!

DanielWest