100-year video to kick off Holmes County Fair week

With the Holmes County Fair celebrating 100 years, the Holmes County Senior Fair Board plans to roll out the red carpet, inviting many Ohio dignitaries including Gov. Mike DeWine and others to come and experience the moment.

The anniversary celebration will run Aug. 7-12 and kick off Monday at 5:45 p.m. in the expo center, where a series of highlight events will honor 10 decades of Holmes County Fair history.

“We are having a video produced in conjunction with the Holmes County Historical Society,” said Kerry Taylor, Holmes County Senior Fair Board president.

He said Mark Boley and a team from the Holmes County Historical Society are working to create a video featuring the history of the fair. Bronson Allison, a local videographer who owns and operates the company LiveMoreTV, took on the challenge of recreating 100 years’ worth of history.

Allison had to do a great deal of work, connecting with the volunteers at the Holmes County Historical Society, who did much of the legwork in fleshing out old photos, newspaper articles and more from past fairs. He was able to mesh it into a video looking through the ages, from when the fair was in its infancy to the days of flooding at the old fairgrounds and the move to its current site at Harvest Ridge.

“It’s really a cool concept because we go all the way back to the very beginning of the fair and show all of the history,” Allison said. “There’s so much more to the fair than most people realize. There were several different locations, a lot of fair changes, the flooding days, and we bring it all the way up to today so people can really get a sense of where the fair began and the path it has taken to get to where it is today. It’s really neat to see the whole story tied together, and I’m excited to be able to present it to the people.”

Allison said the video is under six minutes in total, which means he had to pack a whole lot of information into a very short length of video.

Former Voice of Holmes County personality Mark Lonsinger created the script and does the voice-over work, and Allison said having the narration helps tie the video together.

“So many people love going to the fair today, but it is very interesting to see that people shared the same passion for going to the fair a century ago,” Allison said.

One common theme throughout the years is Holmes County’s fair has always been a junior fair that focuses on highlighting area youth and their animals and projects.

That is something Allison said was a common theme throughout, and he said in creating the video, he learned a lot more about the fair.

“It was eye-opening in many ways,” Allison said. “I never knew they used to have the fairgrounds at the old airport in Millersburg. I had no idea that at one time they moved it into the courthouse area. There’s a really neat photo of a whole bunch of people packed in around the courthouse during the fair, shoulder to shoulder, having a great time.”

He said this video will be fascinating for the older generations, who can look back into history and remember the olden days of the fair, and also it will serve as an avenue for younger people to better understand the history of the Holmes County Fair.

He said in creating this video, it will one day be looked back upon by future generations as a vehicle to recreate history, and that is something of which he is proud to be a part.

Mark Boley, executive director at The Victorian House and Holmes County Historical Society, said it was an honor for him and his team to work on collecting the many pieces of the video.

“We had a vision of what we wanted, and it took a lot of hard work to dig up the past 100 years of history, but it turned out exactly how we hoped it would,” Boley said.

He was joined by HCHS President Mary Tipton and curator Candace Barnhart in the effort to pull together all of the memorabilia including press clippings, advertisements, old programs
and more.

He said when the HCHS got involved initially more than one year ago, the first challenge was to verify this was indeed the fair’s 100th annual fair. While he said there were some that were hit and miss in the county’s earlier years, the 100-year anniversary date was verified.

“We are excited, and I think the people will really find it fascinating to take a walk back through the past 100 years,” Boley said.

In addition to the video, the HCHS will once again be located in the upper floor of the big red barn, where they will be available to chat with people, and there will be memorabilia the public can peruse that will move in and out of the barn. It can’t remain in there overnight because of its age and value.

“Because it is the 100th anniversary, we anticipate a lot of visitors coming into the barn to talk and see what’s there,” Boley said.

The video will be aired Aug. 7 at 5:45 p.m. in the expo center as part of the 100th anniversary opening day celebration.