The 2009 Kansas State Fair came to a close Sunday. This year’s beautiful and mostly rain-free week pushed memories of the soggy 2008 fair out of our minds.

Although final numbers aren’t in yet, there are many promising signs that this year’s event was an all-out success. The North American Midway experienced its best Monday in 40 years. Competitive-exhibits entry numbers were either at or above past years. We witnessed lines of fairgoers at the gates. Busy food venues. A steady stream of media in the fair’s publicity office.

Fabulous Media Partners
Whether reporters were in picking up media credentials at the publicity office, getting the scoop on the day’s happenings, setting up interviews or keying in stories – they seemed truly interested in and jazzed by the fair. They were happy to be there. We can never thank them enough for all they do to get the word out. We constantly had people ask us how to find such-and-such they’d read about in the paper, seen on TV or heard on the news. The fair could never succeed without our tremendous media partners. Thanks, guys!

Checkin’ Out the Studs
Animals remain a highlight of the Kansas State Fair. This year’s theme – Check out the Studs –  reinforced the horse shows and competitions, a horse-themed quilt-block contest, and the crowd-pleasing Cavallo Equestrian Acrobatics. Rabbits, chickens, goats and other fair animals didn’t seem to mind their second billing and continued to be a big part of fairgoers’ fun.

A Fair to Remember
Be sure to check out the post show featuring Greteman Group’s own Jen Wiley and Todd Ramsey as hosts. Kansas State Fair general manager Denny Stoecklein answered all the need-to-know questions about this year’s events. (How do they figure attendance for the fair? Did Denny try the famous Pickle Pop?) Hypnotist Ron Diamond also shared thoughts on what makes the Kansas State Fair such a special place to visit. (Since Todd was one of the folks hypnotized by Ron last week, his burn question was, “Did I REALLY do that?”)

Now that the fair has come to an end, we’ll have to put our food cravings on hold for another year. (I’m already hungering for an ear of roasted corn.) In the meantime, keep in touch and be among the first to find out about next year’s entertainment via Facebook (must be logged into Facebook), Twitter, and the fair blog.

What lasting memory did you make at the 2009 Kansas State Fair?

Last night, the GG team headed up to Hutchinson, Kansas, home of the Kansas State Fair.

We started by meeting up with in-the-trenches colleagues Jen and Angelina at the publicity office. We then set off in search of food – perhaps the most important of our fair activities. Of course, we had to partake in the renowned Pronto Pup, a favorite of many fairgoers. My peers have hyped the wheat- and rice-breaded hotdog (this breading sets it apart from its boring cousin, the corndog) to an unbelievable degree; it lived up to their lauding.

While eating, we headed over to the equestrian arts show. We were a little late and didn’t have the best view, but we were able to see some unbelievable stunts from the Cavallo family’s fifth-generation of riders. These athletes balanced on one leg, stood on shoulders and even did back flips while the horse galloped around the ring. Catch their show – it’s amazing.

You Are Getting Very Sleepy
After that, we made our way to the much-touted hypnotist show. Naturally, I volunteered. Shy, I’m not. I’m not sure how best to describe what it’s like to be under. I was very relaxed, open to suggestions and didn’t really care about looking foolish. (Hmmm. Sounds like me every day.) Largely, I was aware of what I was doing, though apparently I proudly displayed my wedding ring when approached by a woman onstage and threw a couple of chairs when asked to “lose the chairs.” I don’t remember doing either. You can see some photos of me under the influence here.

Why Can’t I Grow Pumpkins Like This?
Before we left the fairgrounds, we stopped by the agricultural displays to view some very large produce, creative scarecrows and, of course, the famous butter sculpture. None of us are sure who first decided to carve butter, but we all agreed the result is amazing.

We really hope that you can make it out to this year’s fair. It looks like the weather’s going to cooperate beautifully.

You can check out some photos from our trek here.

I had such a good time that I’m planning on going back up to the fairgrounds on Thursday for the inaugural Kansas State Fair tweetup. This time, however, I’ll probably stick to the audience for the hypnotist’s show.

If you’ve been to the fair, what was your favorite part?

If you’ve yet to head to Hutchinson, what are you looking forward to most?

Today marks the first day of the 2009 Kansas State Fair – and we couldn’t be more pumped for this year’s festivities.

With grandstand acts like Huey Lewis and The News, Heart and GG’s personal favorite, the Naked Brothers Band; incredibly bizarre, but delicious food choices; and unbeatable people-watching opportunities, the fair is our favorite Kansas event year-in and year-out.

If you’re planning on heading to the fair, make sure you bring your digital cameras and camcorders. We want to see the photos and videos you’re capturing, so after you upload them to Flickr and YouTube, make sure you tag them with “KSF09” – the official tag for this year’s fair.

Our team is heading up to the fairgrounds on Monday evening to partake in some delicacies and experience the hilarious hypnotist.

Every year, a few days before the fair officially kicks off, Kansas media are invited to the fairgrounds for a tour of the facilities, interviews with the organizers and opportunities to uncover some unique insights about quirky exhibitors or fanciful foods.

This year, we took the pre-show event online, making it easier for more people to attend, and opening it up to more than just the media, taking questions via Ustream and Twitter from anyone who was watching. Jen and I hosted the show, which was a ton of fun.

We talked with Denny Stoecklein, the fair’s general manager, about fair fashion, unique foods and not-to-miss events. We spoke with Greg Thompson, a Grand Drive committee member, who shared details about the youth-focused agriculture event. And Becky Rhodes from the Kansas Department of Commerce told us all about the Bluestem wine and beer garden, featuring Kansas-brewed beer and the people’s choice winetasting event.

But enough gabbing – check out the recorded version of the pre-show for yourself.

And, don’t miss KAKE’s coverage of the pre-show.

The fair starts today, so we’ll have another post this afternoon – make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed or check back!

We don’t ever want this blog to become just a platform for trumpeting our huge, frequent, well-deserving wins. That would just be obnoxious. But we would be remiss if we didn’t share the following news:

The Kansas State Fair and Greteman Group took home the overall best advertising campaign for fairs in its division from the recent International Association of Fairs and Expositions’ convention. The campaign, in its third year, focuses on key reasons people attend the state’s largest event: hanging out, enjoying friends and people watching.

The fair also received honors for the best newspaper ad, best radio and best television in its division.

We’re incredibly proud of what the fair has accomplished and are grateful it partnered with us to create an edgy, distinctive campaign. Kudos to the Kansas State Fair management team and board for empowering great, award-winning creative that’s as successful as it is fun. Be sure to check out the studs – and the entire campaign – at our website.