FOOD FIGHT!

Y'all know I L O V E the Iowa State Fair!!! 

I am 32 years old and I have been to 32 Iowa State Fair's.

Anything you need to know about the fair, I am your girl!  Can't find a place you are looking for?  Just ask! :) I go just about every day if not every day to the fair every year and LOVE every second of it!

It truly is a family affair for me!  My parents, grandparents, two aunts, and one uncle camp up there every year!  I am actually sending in the letter this year to get on the TEN YEAR waiting list for a spot in the campground!  Yes y'all, TEN YEARS!!!!!  (Well that WAS the plan!)

I can remember going and staying in the Youth Inn with my mom so we could go to the fair as a family and show livestock.  One year my BFF Sarah stayed with us and it was a BLAST!!!

If y'all don't know what the Youth Inn is, it is a HUGE brick building with old metal bunk beds in it and VERY thin mattress on them that people can stay at while participating at the fair.  It has two sides:  Men on one side, women on the other.  There is a "guard" at the door and you have to have a card to get in.  They have a curfew at night and if you are staying there without your parents they will call them to let them know you have missed curfew.  Yes, y'all they do bed checks! 

It is mainly used to house the FFA Ushers to help out at the free stages and Grandstand evens throughout the fair. They are up there the week before the fair starts and then the whole 11 days so they have A LOT of stuff! 

So here is the real reason I am posting today's blog y'all! I am not sure if y'all are aware of this or not but the ISF board has decided to go cashless at the 2014 fair.

Here is a little back ground on how being a vendor works at the ISF.  You have to pay for your "spot" to have your booth.  Then you have to pay for the electricity to be ran into your booth, if you need water in your booth, you have to pay for that.  Now lets talk about the items you sell in your stand.  You have to use ISF products for the most part.  Their bottled water, pop cups, lids, straws, you get where I am going, right?

Then there is a certain percentage you have to give the ISF at the end of each day from your gross amount of sales.  Yes y'all, you have to give them money you make after you pay them all that other stuff too! 

NOW, they want to start selling these tickets!?!?!?!?!?!

Here is my stance on the idea..............................I am going to be thinking VERY LONG AND HARD about going to the fair every day and every year if this is how it is going to be ISF!

I am NOT going to stand in line to get ALL THESE tickets (at 50 cents a peace I am going to have to get alot for all the food I like to enjoy at the fair!) to turn around and stand in line for the actual food I am going to buy!

You are STEELING money from HARD working people that spend every waking minute at YOUR FAIR! You make them pay to get in every day to sell items at YOUR fair and now you are going to do THIS to them?!?!?! 

I say SHAME on you!!!!  You say it is to cut down on robberies but I say you are the ones robbing people!  Look how much money you are costing by paying all these booths to have people at them to take the money for the tickets! And now you are saying your staff is more trust worthy than the vendors because who is going to be manning the booths selling YOUR tickets?!?!?!  YOUR people I would guess!!!! 

SHAME ON YOU ISF!!!!!!  Iowan's work hard for their money and you are making it hard for them to come and enjoy the fair I fell in love with as a child!!!!  It is bad enough you raise the ticket prices and food prices and now I have to pay to get into the horse arena to watch my cousin in the cowgirl contest!!!!

Y'all know I am country girl that now lives in the city. This doesn't make me an expert on anything and this is just my opinion on the situation but as you might be able to see, I am VERY upset by it!  I will be letting the ISF board know my concerns as well today!  I know my little amount of money I spend at the fair isn't going to mean that much but I still want them to know my opinion!

Thanks y'all for listening and I hope if you feel the same way as I do that you voice your opinion!