The Maryland State Fair won nine awards at the 2021 International Association of Fairs and Expositions (IAFE) Grow Fair Strong Convention in San Antonio, Texas. The Maryland State Fair competed in Division 4, which is for fairs with attendance of 500,001 to 1 million.
“Our Maryland State Fair team is honored to be recognized for the hard work and dedication it takes to present high-quality, fun, and educational entertainment events for more than a half million fairgoers each year,” said Maryland State Fair General Manager Andy Cashman.
The Maryland State Fair received the following IAFE Hall of Honor Communications:
• 1st Place: Maryland State Fair Video Promo Prepare for the Fair – a 30-second television advertisement aired on regular broadcast and cable television.
• 1st Place: Maryland State Fair Promotional Advertising – Prepare for the Fair traveling bus billboards.
• 2nd Place: Newly Established or Evolving Program/Exhibit which promotes agriculture to the fair-going public. – The AG Bitmoji Classroom created with fun videos by Junior Fair Board Member Kylan Keehan that were added to the marylandstatefair.com AGventure! web page.
• 2nd Place: Fair Agriculture Individual Photo: Horticulture/Crops – Award presented for the “Have A Grain Day” photo of the grain display in the Maryland State Fair U-Learn Agriculture Education Zone.
• 2nd Place: Fair Agriculture Individual Photo: Equine – Award presented for “That Windblown Look” photo of a girl on her horse with her hair and the horse’s hair blowing in the wind.
• 2nd Place: Fair Agriculture Individual Photo: Ag Education – Award presented for “Got Milk” photo of a little girl milking the educational display cow in the Maryland State Fair U-Learn Agriculture Education Zone.
• 2nd Place: Fair Agriculture Individual Photo: Miscellaneous – Award presented for the “Say Cheese” photo of a smiling little girl holding her smiling pony at the Maryland State Fair.
• 3rd Place: Fair Agriculture Individual Photo: Rodeo – Award presented for “A Moment of Silence” photo of a young girl on her horse just before entering the ring to compete in the Maryland State Fair Rodeo Cowgirl Barrel Racing Competition.
The Maryland State Fair also received an award in the following IAFE 2021 Non-Fair Facility Usage category:
• 1st Place: Unique Event created to utilize the facility during the pandemic – The devastating results of the COVID pandemic caused the Maryland State Fairgrounds to think outside of the box to help meet a variety of needs that arose in the community. The Fairgrounds facilities and parking lots were utilized for: a Baltimore County drive-thru COVID testing facility and a walk-thru vaccination site that served over 200,000 individuals; a Baltimore County Together drive-thru pop-up market with donated fresh meals and resource kits and Amigos of Baltimore County/4MyCity Food Drive donation and pick-up site, which combined served over 5,000 families; and, a satellite location for numerous American Red Cross emergency blood drives.
