‘I keep coming back': Community, vendors prepare for the upcoming Clay County Fair

Yahoo

02-04-2025

Vendors are putting the finishing touches on their booths, rides are getting their final inspections, and the community prepares for day 1 of the 39th annual Clay County Fair.
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'This is the great fair,' said business owner Daniel Jolley. 'We do about six fairs in Florida and this is probably our favorite.'
Jolley is the owner of 'Custom Engraving Ring Booth' based out of Vermont. he's been coming to the Clay County Fair for the last 4 years. We ran into him as he was putting up his banner ahead of tomorrow.
What keeps him coming back to this specific Florida fair?
'The energy that's here is a really big deal,' said Jolley. 'They've continued to grow more new people are coming in which means more people can discover your product and It's just fun.
This year's theme is 'Meet Me at the Fair.' Making its grand return to the fair since Covid is Exhibition Room 1. There, people can submit their photographs and art for judging. Also new is the Rocking' Rolling Himalayan ride and the fast experience where you can skip the line and save some time.
'I love the fair!' said Guest Services Volunteer Lynn Peaslee.
Peaslee has been volunteering here for the last 15 years and says she loves it more and more with each passing year.
'The whole atmosphere,' said Lynn. 'I don't like fair food, but I love the fair, so I keep coming back.'
And something that Lynn tells me that's interesting is that there are only 5 paid positions working the fair this year. Everyone else is a volunteer.
Although the Clay County Fair is a time for good family fun, Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook is encouraging fair-goers to stay aware of their surroundings and prepare ahead of time to stay safe.
'We are going to have zero tolerance for any shenanigans,' said Sheriff Cook.
The Clay County Fair is traditionally a safe event. However, Sheriff Cook tells me they are expecting almost 200,000 people over the next 11 days to visit the fairgrounds. With that being said, they are not taking any chances.
'We have lots of deputies in uniform that'll be working. The fair has security guards that'll be working and then we will also have undercover personnel monitoring the crowd,' said Sheriff Cook. 'We want people to enjoy the fair, but we're going to keep it very safe.'
One thing Sheriff Cook strongly encourages everyone to do before they step foot on the fairgrounds is to download the Safer Watch App on your mobile device.
'Let's say that you see something suspicious at the Fair, or you see somebody suspicious, you can snap a photo and send that right to our team via the Safer Watch app, and that way we know exactly who we're looking for or what we're looking for,' said Sheriff Cook.
Another safety concern the Sheriff expressed to me going into this weekend is the heat. Make sure you stay hydrated and enjoy everything the fair has to offer.
Fairgrounds open at 2 pm April 3rd.
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