Dec. 26, 2017 – Washington Co., WI – During the recent Agriculture and Industrial Society Board annual meeting at Washington County Fair Park an announcement was made on changes for 2018.
Aside from a new look to the Fair Park and Convention Center web page and implementing a new marketing campaign to help spur facility rentals, Kellie Boone, the executive director of the Fair Park, said they were planning to utilize the Silver Lining Amphitheater for more events.
“We’re in the process of looking at several different music events to be held in the next year or two, besides the fair,” she said.
The Silver Lining Amphitheater was a gift to the Washington County Fair Park from West Bend Mutual Insurance. It officially opened in 2016.
“From the second I accepted the position I just thought we could do so many cool things at the Amphitheater,” said Boone. “Rather than just using it three days of the year during the annual County Fair, why not use it for multiple concerts throughout the year.”
In 2018 the Fair Park will kick off a one-day music festival. “We’re in talks with a person to run it in a partnership,” said Boone.
Open dates would be either one Saturday in June or in August 2018. “We have two potential dates to block off the grounds,” said Boone. “This will be an outdoor event, it’ll be multiple acts and the idea is to have a couple local bands and then a fair-level national act.”
Boone said July would be off the table at this point because the County Fair takes up a majority of time for staff.
Moving toward more of a music scene at the Fair Park is being done for a couple of reasons including replacing Rummage-A-Rama, which is on hold indefinitely; the strategy would also help showcase the venue.
“People know we host weddings and business meetings and conventions but we need to show the parks flexibility and the variety of things we can do with the space available,” she said.
“We talked about doing things like a winter carnival. I’d like to take our signature events, like the Bridal Fair and Holiday Craft Fair, and mix that with more open-to-the-public type of events.
Boone’s proactive approach is already underway as coming up St. Patrick’s Day the Fair Park is hosting an indoor Irish concert.
“It’ll be Saturday, March 17 and the tentative plan is to start it after the Erin parade and have a couple different Irish-themed music acts,” Boone said.
Tallymoore, a contemporary Irish Folk band from Milwaukee, has already been booked. More details on the event will be released in the coming weeks.
