Fairgrounds Still Draws a Crowd
douglas county fair, fairgrounds, recreation,
With on-site facilities that can handle groups as large as several thousand or as small as a half-dozen, the Douglas County Fairgrounds is, literally, the place to meet.
“We might have 15,000 people over three days of the county fair, which is one of our biggest events and uses every building we have,” says Jonna Negus-Pemberton, fairgrounds manager. “Then, we might have just 10 people in one of our smaller conference rooms – and everything in between.”
The facility is in the midst of a beautification project, upgrading the midway so that it’s more park-like in appearance. A playground area and small amphitheater also are being installed to create a greener ambiance. The project is in response to user requests, and also will help the fairgrounds fill in the few missing gaps on its calendar.
“We have a lot of availability during the week, but our weekends are pretty much booked,” she says. “We still want to work to bring in those corporate activities during the week, so that’s a focus now.”
As the fairgrounds has become more popular, Negus-Pemberton and her staff have found themselves helping to boost attendance for a wide variety of activities.
“We are shifting our marketing to help those events be more successful,” she says. “We put our calendar in the local print media to make sure that there’s information out there about what’s going on here, so that people in Castle Rock and the county can attend. In the past, we’ve always worked more on finding people to have their events here, and we still do that, but now we’re working more on focusing on the events themselves and growing them.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Todd Bennett
