More diverse crowds attend the Big Fresno Fair every year which
contributes to an increase in revenues for the city. About $10
million is used every year to bring the Big Fresno Fair to Fresno.
The fair also employs about 1,000 residents from Fresno and neighboring
cities.
Ezra Romero / The Collegian
Once a year Fresno hosts the Big Fresno Fair, which brings many people from neighboring cities together. The event increases traffic, jobs and revenue for the city.
From every concession stand and food vendor to the multiple community-focus events that take place, the fair seeks to give back to the community of Fresno.
“We are a great community partner and we do everything we can to be involved in the community and get them to be involved with us,” Stacy Rianda, deputy manager and spokesperson for the Big Fresno Fair, said.
The planning of the fair begins at the beginning of the year and sometimes events and acts are even being booked while the fair is still in Fresno.
About $10 million is used every year to facilitate the Big Fresno Fair.
“We hire 1,000 people and have a permanent staff of 50. So we basically have over 1,000 employees working for us,” Rianda added. “The operating budget is around $10 million for the entire year,” Rianda said. “We are open all year long, so we have interim events that take place here all throughout the year.
“In one weekend we can have five-to-seven events during non-fair time,” Rianda said.
The exact amount brought by the Big Fresno Fair is unknown, but Rianda affirms “$68 million of direct and indirect revenue goes back into the community just by coming here. Money goes to the city, county, tax revenue and back to businesses.
“Our vendors who come here go to restaurants, buy gas and shop in [Fresno],” Rianda said. “That’s all revenue coming back to our city and the county because of what we do here.”
Not all jobs go to Fresno community members. The fair also hires employees from different surrounding communities in California.
“We hire people at the beginning of the year and they travel with us from fair to fair, which saves time when were training,” Gerald Smith, co-manager of Chicken Charlie’s, said.
“We do everything on the go and we hire locally,” Smith said.
Several fair employees have worked with the fair and food vendors for several years. Smith described them as family.
“You have steady hours for a job, even though sometimes you can work from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. It’s a very nice atmosphere,” Chicken Charlie’s employee Mika Gomes said.
“The fair is like going to a football game. You have an attraction that people want to go see and they will spend money on it,” Smith said.
“Spending money is the greatest way of boosting the economy,” Smith added. “If people held onto their money, nobody would be doing anything.”
The Big Fresno Fair also tries to help Fresno by hosting the “Feed the Need Food Drive” last year.
“The ‘Feed the Need Food Drive’ collected 52 tons of food last year that went back to the starving residents in our county,” Rianda said.
The Big Fresno Fair annually sponsors a blood drive.
“We also collected 11,000 pints of blood in our blood drive,” Rianda said. “So we always try to identify a need within the community and fill it, whether it’s hunger or blood or jobs.”
