NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — With the 2022 Kansas State Fair just two weeks away, there are new procedures at the Fair, starting with the fact that you have a gate admission with your grandstand concert ticket.
"All concert tickets include your gate admission," said fair general manager Bryan Schulz. "It's very important that you realize that on your concert ticket, it has two scans. When you walk in the front gate and you have your ticket scanned, do not throw it in the garbage, because then you would not have a way to get into the grandstand. Make sure you keep that ticket in your pocket until you get through into the grandstand area."
There will also be alcohol allowed through most of the areas of the fairgrounds.
"This will give anyone 21 and older the ability to take their adult beverage outside of the confines of our beer garden or wine garden areas. This will give them the opportunity to walk throughout the whole grounds, except for the 4H building, domestic arts, Oz gallery, the education center, the Pride of Kansas and the administration building. Every other building, you'll be able to walk freely up to and through, with a specific amount of alcohol in a clear plastic glass. When you go into the beer garden, you will be ID'd and then you will get a wristband that will coordinate with that color of a day. That means that you have been checked for your ID. If you decide to leave that building, you will have to have your alcohol beverage in a translucent or clear plastic glass and that will allow you to walk through the grounds."
There will also be more LED sign boards for you to find out what's going on at the fair each day.
"Last year, I think we had four of them," Schulz said. "This year, I think we're anywhere from 10 to 12 of them. This is going to be an opportunity to have what's coming up in the next couple of hours, what's going to happen throughout the day. Check those out. In the past, we've had signs that would have the daily schedule on them. It just got to be so expensive to do that and to have to change them out every morning."
The Kansas State Fair starts Friday, September 9.