Business View Magazine | October 2019

209 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2019 AT A GLANCE THE STATE FAIR OF LOUISIANA WHAT: The official State Fair for the State of Louisiana WHERE: Shreveport, LA WEBSITE: www.statefairoflouisiana.com STATE FAIR OF Louisiana T he State Fair of Louisiana, located on the 157-acre Louisiana State Fairgrounds, in the heart of the City of Shreveport, is the official State Fair for the State of Louisiana. It was founded by a group of Shreveport’s leading citizens in 1906, and has been held continuously except for one year, 1918, when it was cancelled due to the national influenza epidemic. The founders’ primary interests were to provide an institution to assist in developing the agricultural and industrial resources of the greater Ark-La-Tex area. “We have gone through ups and downs over the past 113 years, but we’re still here, and our focus is still pretty much the same,” says the Fair’s President and General Manager, Chris Giordano. “We promote the industrial and agricultural resources of the State of Louisiana, while also providing a showplace for our 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America) students, and providing a better quality of life for the citizens, not only of Louisiana, but for the Ark-La-Tex, because Shreveport is situated in the very northwest corner of the state, and we draw quite a bit of people from east Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi, as well.” The State Fair of Louisiana is a private, non- profit, 501(c)(5) organization, and is self-sufficient, receiving no funding from either the City of Shreveport, or the State of Louisiana. “We do apply for, and receive, marketing grants and those types of items, from time to time, but it’s not huge amounts of money,” says Giordano. “We run a pretty lean operation here; I have eight full-time staff in our administrative office, including myself, then THE OFFICIAL STATE FAIR