Vendors and visitors will spend more than $6 million during fair week — outside of the fair.
by: Amanda Smith
CANFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) – Over 600 vendors will be set up for the Canfield Fair and the economic activity they will bring won’t be limited to Canfield.
The 173rd Canfield Fair starts next week, but vendors and fair employees are already hard at work getting everything ready to go.
Dante DiRusso knows what it takes to get ready for the fair.
“A lot of sweat, a lot of hard work and as many people as you can get involved,” he said.
Vendors started setting up Thursday and will continue to roll in for the next few days.
The DiRusso family will be operating seven sausage trailers.
“We have supplies stocked all throughout the fair in a couple properties that are close by,” DiRusso said. “We start working on getting things ready months ahead of time, planning out who’s going to be where, getting our schedules together.”
For the DiRussos, selling at the fair is a fine science. They study each trailer’s sales and figure out how much of each product is needed, and all of their supplies have to be bought in advance — most of them locally.
Vendors and visitors will spend more than $6 million during fair week outside of the fair, including for lodging, transportation, food and drink and shopping.
“It’s economic development for the whole community,” said George Roman, III, a member of the Canfield Fair Board. “It’s not just the fairgrounds, it’s all of Mahoning County and that includes Columbiana County, Trumbull County, Ashtabula County and western Pennsylvania.”
The vendors know they’ll make good money, too, but they’re going to have to work for it.
“All day, all night. This is definitely the highlight of our year,” DiRusso said.
The first day of the Canfield Fair is Wednesday.