There’s A Lot to Love In Northern Wisconsin (Hour 1)

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On

location, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Alba, along with our guest host from Mornings at Pat Crite Low.

Mr. Pat Crite Low, we are live on location at the northern Wisconsin State Fair from Chippewa Falls.

And ladies and gentlemen, to kick us off, here are the Northwoods Quartet.

Hello,

neighbor.

Everything's fine all along the line.

I've been working on the railroad all the live long day.

I've been working on the railroad just to pass the time away.

Can't you hear the whistle blowing?

Rise up so early in the morn.

Can't you hear the captain shout?

I've been

working on the railroad cause I'm a railroad man.

I've been working on the railroad just to make those trains go fast as I can.

Can't you hear the whistle?

Man, I hate getting up.

Can't you hear the captain shouting?

Get to work.

Get to work.

Get to work.

Yes, I'll be working on the railroad all day.

Live all

day.

Hey, there you go.

Welcome

to the northern Wisconsin state.

That is not what you expected when you heard that hairball was going to be on the main stage tonight.

A little less hairball.

That was amazing.

That was absolutely amazing.

For those watching on the stream, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or the like, you can see we are here at the Pervillion Building C on the northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in Chippewa Falls.

So happy to have Pat with us from the mornings of Pat Crichtlow.

Thanks for making the drive over like with Soda Pat.

It was practically a walk.

It was wonderful.

Good to be back.

I love Fair Week.

Me too.

We're going to get to more of the fair.

But first of all, guys, the Northwest Quartet, we just this is the thing I love about going on the road and going.

places and Pat has been here for 30 plus years and it said you Todd you got to come up here last year was our first year we're back and you guys were singing here right down the down the row and I just asked you guys 20 minutes ago and you said sure first of all introduce yourselves and tell us where you're from.

Okay I'm Tom Arneberg I'm a baritone from about one mile west of here.

I'm Steve Hyatt I'm the bass and I'm from Chippewa Falls.

I'm Dan Heike I

sing the lead I'm from Mandovi.

I'm Randy Liebel.

I'm from Eau Claire and I sing tenor.

Well, you're absolutely fantastic.

So, how long has the Northwest Quartet been in business and how'd this begin?

Well, we've been in business about nine months now.

I think it was.

That's it.

Wow.

Yeah.

Is that a while like good or while bad?

It's a while good.

I mean, it sounds like you've been doing this a lot longer than nine months, but go ahead.

Well, we've been all in Barbershop for quite a while.

Actually, I think Tom's been in Barbershop for forty, forty seven years.

Fifty two.

And I'm the baby of the group.

I've only been doing it for about 15 years.

I've been in it for about 48 years.

Dan and I are second-generation barber shoppers, so I've kind of grown up with it.

Wow, is it your first time at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair?

Have you been performing here before?

I guess not only not, but this guy, Steve

and I were in a different group called CHIPS and we sang this many years, but it's

the first time

for this quartet.

I'm always fascinated by a great barbershop.

I could listen to it all day.

I

just love harmony of any kind.

You see it now.

Everything from the eagles and the beetles.

The thing that makes a group work is the harmony.

I mean, anybody can just be a lead singer, but to have everybody... Somebody begs to differ, Pat.

When you combine that talent, that tremendous lead singer talent, how am I doing so far?

Good.

This is getting pretty

thick now.

Well,

the Barnes are right over here.

But you surround it with a group like this, and I mean, this is wonderful.

What a great way to kick things

off.

It really is, guys.

For people that might be listening on WCFW,

tap locally or we go to 11 stations across the state.

People might be coming in this weekend.

Where can they catch you?

Are you just gonna be kind of wandering around singing or is there a specific time or spot you're performing?

Well, we are going to be singing again at four o'clock or the, I guess they call it the free.

Okay,

yeah, and we'll be wandering around, but hopefully we won't get lost.

So we will sing when we wander around a little bit as well.

All right.

Well, that's fantastic.

Just today, just today so that people got to get out here.

Anything else while you have it asked you that you want to make sure people know about you?

We have a new Facebook page as of yesterday.

Just Northwood's Quartet on Facebook so you can find us there.

Northwood's Quartet on Facebook.

Can you guys hire out for events or concerts or?

Yeah, we're priced.

When do we get the Facebook

page?

I can't thank you enough for stopping by.

Do you have a short one, a quick one you can leave us with?

Something like that?

All right, here we go.

Here is the one thing, ladies and gentlemen, from the Northern Wisconsin State Fair along with Pat Critello.

I'm Todd Albaugh.

Here is the Northwoods

Quartet.

in the shelter of the night.

Fields of cat and all around me, voices singing sweet and low.

Or I'm lucky that you found me where the muddy Mississippi waters flow.

Lounge and on the levee, listen to the nightingale way up above.

Let me linger in the shelter of the night.

Oh, let me linger in the shelter.

Absolutely fantastic.

Don't you really feel like the lead singer really carried that one this time?

You really did.

You really did.

Amazing talent.

Thank you guys.

Thank you all very much.

Again, you can find them on Facebook at North Woods Quartet and you can see about four o'clock here at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair and Building.

See, thanks guys.

Really, really appreciate you.

Thank

you very much.

That was, how about that pack right, Lola?

I mean, we might as well just shut the show.

I was gonna say, I don't know what

you invited me for.

I mean, jeez, I thought I brought a little something to the show.

Of course you do.

Nothing like that.

that.

Wow.

But that's the kind of thing you find when I think that's part of the unexpectedness for those who didn't grow up of those of us who did not grow up here north of highway 29.

We're having been here before last year when I was here with our friend, Trig V. Olson.

I was just maybe maybe I'm embarrassed to say this, but I was a little blown away.

I'm like, wow, this is this is as the kids say, legit.

Is that what the kids

say?

I don't know.

That's what Somers tells me

they say.

Well, I mean, funny that you say that as I turn to this empty chair next to me.

Trig V, what do you think of?

No.

It's his excuse this time.

He was flying in Chicago.

I thought there was a chance he'd surprises.

I thought there was too.

I thought especially if he was singing, if he

was one of

the guys, how great would that have been?

Yeah, exactly.

Well, we miss you.

We'll have an extra snow cone on you.

Right?

Exactly.

But no, when I, again, when I moved here 30 years ago and, you know, I'd lived in Eau Claire prior to that, but it never spent, you know,

big chunk of time and ship will fall as much less come to the fair.

And he come to the fair for the first time and I remember sharing my thinking.

This is Shangri-La.

This is great.

This is this is the best of a of a modern-day Mayberry in the sense of, you know, it's a community that is, you know, Goldilocks size, not too big, not too small.

You got your 15 to 20,000 people here and they come here and it's not it's not stifling by any stretch of the imagination.

And don't get me wrong, I had a great time at Summerfest last weekend in Milwaukee.

There's plenty of small county fairs, but I mean this one to me is really Goldilocks as much as a fair can be.

I guess so well said because you can you can

do the entire thing in a day if you want to, but there's also enough things to explore if you want to make two days of it or a weekend of it, whatever it might be.

We're going to hopefully, within this hour here, Rusty Volk, the fair director, longtime fair director.

I believe Pat, you said this is technically his last year, and then he's going to be holding or handing the reins over to a new person.

But boy, what a history that Rusty has had.

You opened up this year's fair program, and there he is right there in the front page.

Of course, he's

like the centerfold

right there.

Rusty Volk the centerfold.

Yeah, that's great.

Um, but also when we talk into him a little bit in our number two, uh, a little what's worse addition for you about yelling.

How about that?

Uh, speaking of tricky not being here.

No, uh, and, uh, Eric Anderson, the director of the us kube championship and editor of kube nation magazine pat last year when our friend, uh, and colleague Jane matten air and I took the show on the road.

We were here.

You stopped by, uh, the coffee shop downtown with this and, uh, we talked to some of the folks at kube and this weekend as if.

the Northern Wisconsin State Fair wasn't big enough.

People could come to the Chippewa Valley, go to Eau Claire to the U.S.

National Championship, Coupe Championship.

And I hear it's a pretty cool

thing.

There's a lot of people that they get hooked on this thing.

You know, it's that combination of bowling and horseshoes done with wooden blocks.

And I think it's great that you and Jane got to see that.

And I turn again to the empty chair.

Jane, what did you?

Oh, apparently she's getting ready for next week.

But I wasn't apparently Chippewa wasn't good enough this year.

Jane.

She did not

set the schedule, but we'll be not too far away.

We're going to be up in Hayward and Butternut, because the National Lumberjack Championship is going on.

There's a big powwow for our Native American community up there as well.

So we're doing the show up there on Friday in Hayward, Butternut on Thursday at an artisan shop.

And on Wednesday, we are going to be at the EAA Museum there previewing this year's EAA.

So we're all over the state, Patrick.

It sounds like a lot of fun.

Yeah, right.

And good time to have by all.

I can't do that at 6 a.m.

because you're lucky.

because I offered.

I said, I said, well, Pat, I've got all this stuff.

I'm willing to get up early and and you could do your show at the fair and you were like, what?

Uh, me and the cows, you know, it's not that they're not fun, but there's a little more activity at two o'clock in the afternoon.

Yeah, just just so I'm so happy and I know it's kind of a lot for you.

You got a lot of other things to do, but it means a lot having you here.

today and also tomorrow to talk about.

Oh, no, twist my arm.

I have to come to the fair a couple of hours earlier than I otherwise would have.

Sherry will eventually join me in one beer garden or the other.

And, you know, again, it's very social.

People that you haven't seen for a while, it's, you know, it's kind of a.

like in a grown-up homecoming, if you will, that people would come back just for Fair Week.

This year our adult kids can't make it, but in past years it's been fun to see them come and then see somebody that they weren't expecting to see from way, way back in high school and get to see each other.

So it's just a fantastic place to be able to do that right here on the north end of Chippewa Falls.

Pat spoke a little bit earlier of some of the music coming here and hairball is tonight.

That was

not hairball.

No,

that was not hairball.

That

was it.

All right.

I would, how much, if I didn't know about this, I still would have had them rehearse, you know, a hairball tune.

All right.

You know, I mean, what kind of

death metal can you do a barbershop?

Can you actually name a hairball tune?

I can't.

No, no, no.

I bet Trigby could.

I

don't think

you know Trigby.

He's a big, he's a big metal fan.

All those all kinds of entertainment.

In terms of music, there's all kinds of great food.

Pat and I are going to be sampling some of this.

Here's the remnants

of the foot-long hot dog I walked in here.

Here's part of the cold pretzel that's left, but you can get your cheese or your frosting on this.

And look at these super-duper lemonades that Pat and I have.

Lemonades is here, strawberry.

How about that?

You have a strawberry?

I have regular.

Oh, OK.

Cheers.

Cheers, Pat.

Yeah.

Hopefully you can stay with us the next couple of hours and be talking a lot about the northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Gonna be talking about Coupe championships.

And maybe who knows, you might throw a little politics in there as well.

Because when Pat and I get together, it's hard not to talk about politics in some way or another.

You

mentioned Hayward.

We're going to talk about that new NASA administrator, Sean Duffy.

Yes, yes.

And as a matter

of fact, Sean Duffy.

Yes, reality TV show star Sean Duffy.

And for those watching this stream, yes, you can see in the corner there, we're right across from the Republican booth.

And so far, no shots have been fired.

Welcome.

Well, come on back.

It's packed quite low.

Todd Albaul, we're live from Chippewa Falls at the northern Wisconsin State Fair.

You're listening to Civic Media.

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started.

So weird remix of that is from the North Wisconsin State Park Fair in Chippewa Falls along with Pat Crite low of warnings of Pat Crite low every morning from six until nine.

Glad to have you along here in Zomers back home at the World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin.

And we are just hey, I think we'll be joined very shortly by the Fair Director, Rusty Volk.

But Pat already some comments, one from our colleague and friend, Jane McNair, listening in and she's a big fan of Barbershop number one.

She's she left.

But she said, corn dogs, corn dogs, we want corn dogs.

You almost ate a corn dog.

When I asked for a foot long hot dog and he handed me this foot long corn dog, I'm like, no, no, no, no.

I want the thing with the extra onions because I'm going to be sitting next to Todd here and I want him to have the full experience.

I appreciate that.

I sent to my daughters as well because we are not that far away from the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and of course we've been there a lot and it's a tradition that

My grandma started with me as a little kid was we'd go to the fair really early about 7 a.m.

and all the stands were already open and the best breakfast on the fairgrounds is a foot long hot dog with fried onions.

Wow.

That's cool.

There's something special.

So you got to have it here at this fair too.

Yeah, absolutely.

And again, we're warming up the equipment because Jane and Greg and I are going to be on the road next week Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

It'll clear.

I'll clear.

Pardon me.

And Oshkosh and the EAA and then in Butternut at an artisan shop and from the World Championship Lumberjack Championships and the powwow up there in Hayward.

So it's going to be a lot of on the road.

We cannot.

This is my favorite part of this, well, a lot of favorite parts Pat, but I love going on the road.

I love coming up here and doing shows with you because I think the more that we can learn about different places of the state.

So when we're up here, you know, places in Oshkosh or learn something, we're in Oshkosh, vice versa.

And that's really the cool thing about being a statewide network is people learn and get taken to places they might not normally know

about.

Yeah, I mean, look, I'm not going to say that I'm not going to talk about townies.

There are some people that like never leave Chippewa County or wherever.

They're just around their hometown.

There's plenty of people that get out and about a little bit more than that.

But whatever the towny equivalent is of an area code.

I need more people in the 715 to go down to the 414.

And I need more people from the 414 to come up to the 715 and stop, you know, dissonant on the 608.

We have so much to see throughout the state.

That's why I talked up Summerfest so much is to let people know if they, if they hadn't gone down to Milwaukee for that or Brewer's game or the zoo or whatever, go do that.

And I'm just as adamant with.

all of our folks in Milwaukee, Madison and elsewhere to again, on the weekends, get around the state.

There's so much to see on a tank of gas.

It really is.

And that's why, you know, I think trade we might have come up with or maybe with me, I don't know.

But what makes Wisconsin great tours?

I mean, we hear about in our politics so much, everything is wrong.

But I think that one of the great things about traveling on these shows is we discover how much is great about this state and more so the people of the state.

And that's the thing.

I mean, look, we talk about politics a lot because it's

it's important, but it's not all-encompassing.

It's not the be all and end all.

We all have lives to lead and our politics would maybe be a little less abrasive if people understood better that, again, the folks over in that part of the state are not the enemy.

They're people that live their lives in a different kind of way compared to the folks up in, you know, superior or wherever.

And so our politics, our news, everything about our culture wars, whatever you call it,

always get better with travel.

Always get better when we meet each other, when we hear each other's stories.

There's Rusty

now.

I absolutely, absolutely agree.

Rusty Volk is like getting settled in here, do a little off the text line.

Pat was talking about how the half-joking maybe earlier about doing a show with cows.

Alicia watching on YouTube says Pat should totally do a show with cows.

So there you go, Pat.

Marocini could probably set you up if you want to do a cow show.

They totally would, you know, if it came to that.

Here's the real...

reason Alicia is that I love doing it from my home at 6 a.m.

If I get on the road and go any place at 6 a.m.

and technically it doesn't work, I got no place to go.

I can't, you know, there's no there's no studio to run to so you know home is like

You know, you you go through all this and set it up in the middle of the day.

And if it doesn't work out, you know, we make it the Aaron's armor show.

But I have many thanks.

Thanks for bringing this up.

When I do some of these things, I have my own production crew.

This is real.

My sister, brother-in-law, Heather and Mike Gloy.

I try to buy them a dinner, but they're doing this for free.

I could not do these road shows out there.

You had another roadie here.

And this weekend, we brought mom up.

My own version of mom, Anthony, Anthony Edwards mom, because we're all going to the Twin Cities.

tomorrow.

Oh, nice.

Saturday, probably Saturday.

Mom, have a name.

Linda.

Linda.

Linda.

Miss Wallace.

Say say

hi loud enough for us to hear you here.

She just mouth.

Right.

Right.

So, I see where that comes from.

All right.

Mom has always said, I said, why don't you come on the show?

I don't want to be on radio.

Anyway, hey, we got a couple minutes left here.

We're gonna come back and have a larger discussion But I want to bring on here before the break again if you open up the great program here for the northern Wisconsin State Fair this weekend at Chippewa Falls The cover boy right inside is mr. Rusty vogue the fairer director the executive director He was here with us last year rusty.

Thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show this year

Awesome.

I love it.

I love you.

Don't give me a mic is what they say.

That's a good thing.

Thanks for being

This is awesome that you're bringing this live from the northern Wisconsin State Fair.

It's fun.

It really is.

And we'll get into a larger discussion to stay through the break here on the other side.

But just give us a quick take on this.

How's the fair going so far?

Is set up going well?

The first day here, is it going all right?

I'll be totally honest with you.

This has been the easiest fair to get started that I've had in the last 17 years.

Wow.

I

am serious about

that.

If we make it easy on him, he won't, he won't go away.

You know, they're going to keep him here.

You had to threaten to leave for them to finally get things done right for you around here.

You might have a point there.

They're probably still working behind my back that I don't know about, but it's been going awesome.

When you visit with the North American Midway Carnival, I mean, they were actually ahead of schedule as well.

I think it's great because we've been working together with the Carnival and everybody else for many, many years.

And as we've

built the grounds, we built it for them as well so that it's easy for them to set up.

And then they're rested and they're not scrambling and just, it helps for safety and everything.

So, it's eye-less to God.

This has been the easiest opening that I've had since I've been here.

I love hearing that.

I mean, too.

Me too.

It's so much fun.

We're going to come back and talk more with Executive Director of the Northern Wisconsin State Fair, Rusty Volk, also my co-host for the next couple of days, Mr. Pat Crichtlow of Mornings of Pat Crichtlow, if I can talk, too much.

too much of this great fair food I'm doing on on.

Welcome back live from Chippewa Falls, Northern Wisconsin State Fair after this is the all ball shell across Wisconsin of the civic media.

Ready to not October fast.

What is this coming?

It's coming.

That's right.

Welcome back to the Todd Allball show.

We are live on location at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair in Chippewa Falls along with Pat Krightlow, host of Mourneys of Pat Krightlow across the network six until nine.

I'm Todd Allball here.

Zomers, Mr. Zomers is back at the World Headquarters in Madison.

happy to be bringing you the Northern Wisconsin State Fair in part here for today and tomorrow.

And Pat, we are joined here at the table by the executive director of the Northern Wisconsin State Fair here at Chippewa Falls, Rusty Volk.

Rusty, again, congratulations on a heck of a run here as executive director.

How many years as executive director and how many years total have you been involved in the fair?

So this is my 17th fair.

as the executive director, and I've been involved with the fair for 17 years and eight months.

How's that?

That's pretty

darn specific.

That's pretty great.

That's pretty specific.

I love it.

That's

the length that I've been involved in the fair industry.

Yeah, that's just incredible.

Talk a little bit if you can.

I know you touched on it before we went to the break there, but you've made so many improvements here at the state fair grounds.

In 17 years, what do you find?

the two or three biggest improvements or differences between when you started and this year's fair.

Are you going to narrow that

down?

Really?

You want me to narrow that down?

And you even came from the morning show just to be with me, right?

Yes, of

course.

So the biggest thing really of our accomplishments has to be our agricultural campus.

There's no doubt about it.

When I came on this fairground in September 1 of 2008, it was like...

where do I start?

When I look at the barns, I was a farmer, okay?

I farmed in 1900 acres and melt 100 cows out in North Dakota prior to moving to the Chippewa Falls area.

And I'm going, these barns suck.

They were old,

right?

They were falling

down.

They

were over 100 years old and I started taking pictures of the

the framing of the old red barn and it was like an S that was imploding and some of the understanding that I had and I witnessed the first fair.

I just let it happen because you got to witness it to see once before you can make any comments really as to what's going on and when I witnessed the.

culture of showing animals and the intensity of the competition and the amount of fans that were blown on every animal with one transformer pulling all the power and the transformer's glowing red, ready to blow and I'm going, this is what I got myself into.

So it's been a very interesting and fun

transformation, wonderful journey of where we're at.

It's been a joy of going.

So the barns obviously are the biggest thing that needed to be done.

And as long as we're building the barns, it was like, let's create an agricultural campus.

Let's create a campus.

So if you'll notice the numbering on the barns and stuff, it's more black and white.

is basic, like a campus would be.

They could go to college.

So we're setting it up as an educational facility for the youth of tomorrow.

And when I went out to generate revenues for that from the Ken Custors and the Roonies and those elements, I said, that's what we're going to build.

We need to educate.

Educate the youth.

For them to educate the public that don't have a clue of how their food is being produced So that's the biggest thing that's my accomplishment and I'm really proud of that has taken me you know

15 years of the 17 years I've been here to get there.

You should, because again, my first time 30 years ago, you think, wow, these barns are so old and they're so quaint.

And like the next year, you're like, these barns are so old.

And then the next year, these barns are so old and so dangerous.

And so to have a director come in and identify this and say, look, we don't have to do it this way, just because we've always done it this way.

We've got a generous community that's willing to embrace education and willing to embrace their fairgrounds.

needed was was a you know a leader and that's what we found in Rusty.

Absolutely.

We are here live on location at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair in Chippewa Falls.

Todd Albaugh along with Pat Critello, host of Mornings of Pat Critello.

We're talking with the Fair Executive Director, Rusty Volk.

I think the weather may be a little bit of rain tomorrow, but otherwise looks like pretty nice weather for the weekend.

And I just, you know, my first time here was last year.

My sister and brother-in-law live here in Eau Claire in the area, but

I would encourage, as we have a statewide show here, anybody that lives in La Crosse, or Green Bay, or Madison that wants to take the weekend, there's things rusty, not just animals, but there's things for the whole family, right?

Absolutely, that's the first thing I changed.

I became a director here, the manager, and the fact that we did surveys, you know, and one of the survey questions, how many days do you attend the fair?

1.2.

The fair is five days long, six days long, almost all week long, and I'm going, thank you.

Thank

you.

I know what I need to do.

Yes.

So you change things up.

You have something for two days, then you switch.

You got to come back to see the next thing and everything else kind of flows.

You start learning.

You went to, I went to the Institute of Fair Management, which is a national organization going through 32 different courses of study.

Really?

Absolutely.

They've actually got an Institute of Fair Management.

I didn't know that.

From the International Association of Affairs and Exhibits.

It's a national organization and that was great.

I said, I don't want to reinvent the wheel.

I want to know what the best practices are, and then I want to know what the community wants.

I need to know what the people are going to support.

What do we want to want?

You know, they want tractor pulls and dirt shows, live music.

Well, you can't sometimes have live music and tractor pulls in the same venue.

You know, you go through and say, what are you going to do?

How are you going to go about

it?

You actually travel around like to do a fair that is recognized as one of the best ways or other field trips.

You could say, hey, this is what works.

I want to incorporate this in our fair.

Absolutely.

We have a complete network.

You know, we have our convention, but then we have our district meetings and I can call the major Managers of the biggest fairs around and they know me by name.

So what are you doing about wireless?

What are you doing about cash?

What are you doing about barn cleaning?

How do you go about that connect that so get the best of the best information then?

Once you know what they want you just melt it and put it together So these barns very industry they're set up as some of the national things is what we got in there especially for equal I Wow, right?

How has it changed with?

fairgrounds often being seen as a one and done, just a one-off.

They do the fair and then it just sits there.

And of course here in Chippewa we've got Oktoberfest, Springfest has had some spurts and some other events.

To what degree over your tenure have you watched the fairgrounds become, you know, closer to a year-round venue?

That's what that's the goal.

That's totally the goal.

With our new barns, the Costa Coliseum, that's the first year-round building we have.

That's the only building.

When I came here, there was no heat.

There was nothing in any of these buildings.

You sweat all the time.

You did.

You know?

And it was hot.

This building has air conditioning now.

So this is one of the first buildings we worked with.

And we worked with the high school because they did their extravaganza.

They would generate over $100,000 in one night for the athletic program.

But it was hot and stuff like that.

Okay, let's put air conditioning.

You pay half, I'll pay half.

chairs.

You buy half, I'll be half.

I've always been 50% all the way.

Now everybody can enjoy that.

That's kind of the relationships and the building that you have with everybody around.

So I'm so proud of that Custer Coliseum down there because now we got weddings booked down there and all kinds of stuff.

That's

awesome.

That's awesome.

It's just

gonna kill more

people.

One of our listeners, Mark Peresack, texts in his listening.

He says, growing up in Douglas County, minutes away from Lake Superior, I'm mildly amused to hear Chippewa Falls as the quote, unquote, northern Wisconsin.

Oh,

here we

go.

You know, I have memories of Chippewa Falls where my Aunt Dorothy was secretary for the chief of police there and gave me my brother's a tour of the jail.

She lived just a few blocks away from the...

Falls Bait Company, and the trip from Superior to Chippewa entailed going through every little town that 53 now bypasses.

So, I mean, people all over the state have memories of this fair.

Exactly.

So, do you know how it came about to

know the Wisconsin State Fair in

1987?

The state of Wisconsin.

chartered the northern Wisconsin State Fair and the central Wisconsin State Fair.

The northern Wisconsin State Fair was set up with 27 counties in the northern part of the state.

In order to have membership, it was state owned.

In order to be members, you had to be the president and the treasurer of the Ag Associations.

That compiled the membership.

They had bylaws and I've got books that show that.

The 30s, there was no money.

Right.

Depression.

No money.

There was no funding that went about.

However, at the turn of the century in 1915, I've got records that show this venue was the largest fair in the state of Wisconsin.

Wow.

Because in 1913 I did some studies on it that the aqua fish that states that the northern Wisconsin State Fair set a record attendance on Tuesday of fair week of 20,000 people 1913 that's amazing So that's how it's growing all this time so the northern Wisconsin it was chartered in northern Wisconsin State Fair because of the representation and we're retaining that

yeah,

so

Is there an association and affiliation with the Wisconsin State Fair?

To what degree are these central and northern?

You know are they in any way are they connected in terms of you know some of the Exhibits or just any any of the other structure to it or is it completely separate entity?

Here's news absolutely not The Wisconsin State Fair is funded by the state of Wisconsin

Central Wisconsin State Fair is private.

Northern Wisconsin State Fair is private.

Interesting.

We're

private, we're private fares, but yet we're state fairs because we're district fairs and that's how we're designated so people can come from multiple areas, multiple states.

That's what my follow-up is then because we see there's animals here, there's show barns, there's things.

So people, they still go from the county fair and then get their entries here at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair or a direct entry to the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Great question.

So your county fairs consist of exhibitors.

of animals just within the county.

That's Dunn County, Chippewa, whatever.

That's 4-H kids, youth kids, FFA kids, other clubs, you have to meet it.

That's up to like 19 once you're out of high school, when you're out of high school.

Then you have the Open Fair.

So the Northern Wisconsin State Fair hosts the Chippewa County Junior Fair.

And then we clean the barns and we open it up to the open class where you can come from various states and all across the state.

So that's the bigger portion, especially in the dairy.

portion of it.

Rustyville a couple minutes left here.

Is there anything that we have not asked you yet?

You think the people across the state ought to know about the northern Wisconsin State Fair?

Well, the northern Wisconsin State Fair is pretty well set up as that little Wisconsin State Fair that has everything that you can have at Wisconsin State Fair only in a smaller venue.

is what it is.

When you consider we have over 100,000 people attend this fair in the city of Chippewa Falls of what, 15,000 people?

If we create a village up here, we create a city.

And it's wonderful.

It's clean.

We feel we have the cleanest fairgrounds in the state of Wisconsin.

You're not gonna find a cleaner.

It's because of the way we've set it up, the way we clean it.

You know, we have a street sweeper that comes in every morning.

Peggy Lining, Google.

was the first secretary of the Northern

Wisconsin State Department.

Of the Atlantic Cougars.

Yeah.

Peggy Atlantic Cougar, Jake's wife.

And when they hired me, I says, Peggy, what do we got to do?

He says, we're going to make this look like Disneyland.

Well, it's going to be clean where you don't see anything laying around.

You know, I go behind the scenes of my camera.

I take pictures of the stuff that needs to be fixed.

Yeah.

That's

my job.

That's Peg.

That is

Peg.

Trust me.

Quick question.

Can we get a can we bring a kid in here with a small animal like a rabbit or something like that to talk to him?

He wants to bring in a lion.

I want to bring a rabbit.

I said there may be rules against

that.

There you go.

Before this is done tomorrow, we're going to live because it's hilarity when kids bring animals in.

And you can do anything you want.

Put your mind to it.

Hey, look at that.

Hey, before we let you go, I want to say thank you.

You're part of what makes Wisconsin great, Rusty Volk.

Well, thank you.

And thank you for all this commitment to kids and families of the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Thank you.

Greatly appreciate it.

Well, we appreciate it.

Have to have a run.

Really appreciate it, Rusty Volk.

We'll come back with more.

Pat Krightlow and myself, we are live on location.

Pat will do a polka from Chippewa Falls.

Having a life in Google.

The Civic Media Radio Network.

Yeah.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Mr. Crite low Pavilion on the fairgrounds of the northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in Chippewa Falls.

It's the all ball shell live on location here at the northern Wisconsin State Fair.

The aforementioned Mr. Crite low is sitting next to me here at the table for those watching on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the like.

You can see the people passing by behind this pad and it's with an umbrella.

Apparently we're starting to rate.

I don't

know.

Maybe it is gracious.

Well, we got the

where's that Brittany

more low when you need her?

Right

exactly.

It's been a little

but there's plenty of exhibit buildings.

We've talked about the farm buildings going up, and we didn't have enough time to ask Rusty about it, but the main stage, the grandstand, I mean, the old grandstand was long gone for many years, and so they came up with a whole new main stage area.

There's just so many additions that have been made here, and like he said, you don't need just the one glowing red transformer anymore.

There's an entire infrastructure to things like this.

Well, and I think you nailed it, Pat.

is that between is not just your...

I don't know if they're wrong with the typical animals and that sort of thing, but it's the entertainment.

There's all kinds of music throughout the day.

It's not just the night show tonight.

There are things going on all during the day.

There's the carnival rides here you might think is typical.

We're in Building C, which I mean you can talk about.

There's booths here for soft water or politics or home improvement stuff.

I mean it truly is live entertainment and I think that's what's so healthy is we get too much in our screens in my opinion.

Get out and see the world a little bit.

And there is commerce involved.

There's little gadgets that we've picked up along the way that you go, I didn't know I needed that.

And sure enough, you do.

And you're not going to get that just surfing the internet or waiting for the right catalog to come in the mailbox.

Sometimes you've got to walk past somebody at a table and go, what is that?

What's the best thing you ever bought at a fair?

Like commercialized, like not food.

Honestly, a hot tub.

Really?

You got it at a fair?

Our first fair here 30 years ago, we had just bought the house and I'll go ahead and give them a shout, swim right out of Eau Claire and Chippewa.

They had a couple of hot tubs set up and as we're walking past them and we're looking at the prices and we're like...

Maybe the house needs a hot tub, right?

And so there was a hot tub.

And now, of course, we were much younger then that you're thinking hot tub.

Now that we're much older, our most recent big purchase was one of those long poles.

You attach the garden hose to it so that you can clean the siding way up at the top.

That's how practical we become.

Young Pat is going.

Oh, God, man, what has happened to you?

Have some metamucil.

But you can still enjoy it on tub.

There's nothing wrong with that.

I still do throw the

aches and pains after I've been cleaning the siding.

Yes.

I know.

I think I got the state fair in West Alice.

Years ago, I got the hand hammered walk.

the old hand hammer to walk.

And I'm not sure.

It was great.

It did.

You could do great walking in it, great cooking.

And I also got one of those, not ginsu knives, but like that where you can, you saw the can and it still cuts tomatoes.

And I've still got that probably 25 years later.

Oh, absolutely.

Like I said, you have to walk around the buildings just to know what you don't need or what you didn't know that you needed until that very moment.

And then of course, there's all the, we talked about the exhibits earlier, all the school kids.

exhibits that are in some of the buildings or some of the arts and crafts.

So there's just a little bit of everything.

There really is.

And again, running through Sunday, right?

Through the 13th here at Chippewa Falls.

You can go online.

It's on Facebook.

It's on Twitter.

Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

And find all the great information.

And how great is Rusty Volk?

I mean, there's just an institution in the community.

Oh, I know.

And I'm sure he's going to hang around after the retirement.

And Brian Mackey will take over as executive director on January.

first, and I expect a flawless, seamless transition given his reputation in the community.

And you're only going to see more good things happen as the years go by.

People go, oh, it's such a modern world.

It's all internet and screens and everything else.

This is a chance to unplug all of that and just enjoy the same rides that your parents rode as a kid.

Still safe.

But again, to make that connection, or as they like to say, touch some grass.

There, that's what the kids say.

Touch

grass.

This is where it is.

So you want to be here, especially on day one, when, as they say, the grease is clean and the grass is green.

We're

day one where the

grease is clean and the grass is green.

Yes.

I love that.

I also love our very own Terry Barr who is watching us on YouTube today.

Of course she does all of our intros and so much more.

The Emmy Award winning journalist Terry Barr watching on YouTube.

She says my home fair in Shuttle County, longtime 4-H member fairs in Wisconsin are wonderful.

We lived in other states.

I would drag my husband to a fair and it's a very different experience.

And there you go.

Thank you, Terry.

We appreciate that.

the ocean is absolutely right.

There's just something about fair culture in Wisconsin that brings people together.

And I was really glad that Rusty could tell us more about the district fairs and the lack of like a formal affiliation.

But you know, the other reason why you had some of these, you know, district fairs is, you know.

The state fairgrounds are a long ways away.

West Alice is a long way from here.

And there's things that people want to exhibit and have judged, but don't want to go all the way down there.

And so you started these district fairs as well.

But even if you just get to your own local county fair, you have much of the same thing.

Everything I talked about with the food and the rides, then the social aspect of it.

I just think we have a really great structure here that between here and the Central Wisconsin Fair in Marshfield, that you can go to places like this and see.

more than you could at the county level.

Yeah, absolutely.

In fact, Pat, you know how far away West Alice is from the northern Wisconsin State Fire?

How far?

It's so far that a kid once took a dozen eggs to show at West Alice and ended up with a rooster.

That's how far it is.

It takes us a long way.

Did he give you that one?

Terry Barr also, and this is fantastic, because my stepmom, who lives in Seanal, also saw this.

Terry Barr says, I saw Garth Brooks at the Seanal County Fair the year he broke through with friends of those places.

He abided by his contract to play for basically nothing, which was cool, and so many people.

I wasn't there, but my stepmom was, and they still talk about that.

it was just before he broke out.

And there was Garth Brooks at the Journal of County Fair.

Oh, that's the thing.

It's, you know, there's, there's, you can see sometimes artists who, you know, would not have foreigners going to be here Saturday.

A

few years ago,

you wouldn't have seen him here at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

But you also see the up and comers and can say, I saw them when.

And we've had that with some artists around here over the years.

It's a, it's a great time hand by all.

So if you're listening to us across Wisconsin and you want to have a great weekend with the family, get on up here to Chippewa Falls at the Northern Wisconsin.

Wisconsin State Fair.

If you're in the area, if you're listening to us on the tap here, WCFW, the tap on the talk side, come on out.

And if you are going to listen to us on WCFW 105.7, Pat, that's the music station.

They don't let me on that because I don't have that kind of shell.

Mike McCabe does though.

That's all Mike and

God bless him for.

He's doing great stuff.

Come on back.

Our two is straight ahead live for the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Pat and Todd after this.

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