Tennessee Valley Fair

7 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 7 option was incredibly sad.” That gut-wrenching decision to cancel the fair was made in June of 2020. “It was just going to be too late in the game for us to start the planning,” says Villas. “And it was also important for the safety of our fairgoers.” The same concerns ushered in 2021 during the normal planning stages of the fair. She adds, “We were super thankful by the springtime. We thought, this is a reality. We can make this happen.” And they did – 2021 was a successful fair. While attendance was a bit lower, spending was up. Villas remarks, “I think people were just excited to get out and have a good time. We’re very thankful that we were able to come out on the good side of it, for sure.” Looking ahead, Villas is truly excited about the future of the fair. She shares, “I think it’s going to be interesting to see in the next couple of years, how technology plays a role. We’ve seen that in something as simple as online ticketing. That wasn’t around ten years ago… and the industry is going cashless. That will be interesting to see, as well. It even trickles down to our competitions. We did not have a lot of technology-focused events and now we have a robotics competition. It’s really cool to be able to pick up on things that are happening within our world and our society and show what’s possible to our community.” PREFERRED VENDOR/PARTNER n Stellar Visions and Sound www.stellarvisions.net