Lebanon Area Fair supports local tourism

This week’s Lebanon Area Fair is one of the biggest draws of tourists in Lebanon County, with total attendance reaching an estimated 60,000 last year.

For over 60 years, the fair has celebrated Lebanon County’s agricultural roots and culture, with competitive livestock showing, educational opportunities, and chances for those in agriculture to network. Visitors travel to Lebanon from throughout the state, or even beyond Pennsylvania, to participate in shows and enjoy the fair.

“We have some of the premier livestock shows here, so we do attract farmers and breeders from surrounding counties, even surrounding states to do our shows,” explained Lebanon Area Fair board vice chairman Sue Werner, noting that open entries aren’t limited to people living within the county.

Jen Kuzo, president of Visit Lebanon Valley, explained that the fair is possibly the largest annual event drawing visitors to the county.

“We always consider that to be the best of Lebanon County,” said Kuzo, listing the fair’s features as including agricultural exhibits, rides, live music, and food. “I think the fair is essential in educating our locals and our visitors about agriculture and promoting county pride. We value and honor the productivity of our land and our farmers, and agriculture plays an important role in the health and happiness of our community, overall.

“It’s a regional identity for us, that highlights our farming heritage and enhances our region as a destination that values agriculture and agritourism.”

Even outside of the fair, she said, agritourism is the greatest source of local tourism. The Lebanon Valley Economic Development Corp. notes that 45% of county land is used for agriculture in some form.

“It’s as simple as our beautiful landscape, with sprawling dairy and poultry farms, and produce stands, and immersive experiences like baby goat snuggles, pick-your-own flowers on the farm, pick-your-own strawberries, and peaches, and apples, a cow-to-cone experience for ice cream, getting lost in a corn maze, pumpkin patches and enjoying hay rides, harvest festivals, and farmers markets,” said Kuzo. “They all draw neighbors and visitors together supporting our local businesses and honoring our agricultural community.”

Visitors to the fair often stay at local hotels, Kuzo said, noting that Visit Lebanon Valley is funded with a hotel occupancy tax. Both due to the fair and other events through the year, Kuzo said, 35% of collected hotel tax funds are distributed to the Expo Center.

“Bringing people into Lebanon County for this event boosts restaurants and gas stations and shopping, retail, recreation; we’re driving this volume of people into our county, and that’s got to benefit local businesses as well,” she said.

Kuzo also emphasized the importance of the fair for county residents without an agricultural background. According to the Lebanon Valley EDC, 68.9% of the county’s population is housed in urban areas, and only 1.1% of the population claims agriculture as a primary form of employment.

“I think learning about sustainable farming practices or educational tours in school-age children, they’re engaging firsthand with farm life in this way during this week,” said Kuzo. “It’s these moments that often plant the seed for future generations, of appreciation of agriculture.”

Werner said that she feels this year’s fair has been extremely successful thus far in exposing kids to agriculture. She said that Monday, or Children’s Day, planners prepared 500 goodie bags for kids who attended, and they ran out of these bags by 10:45 a.m.

“I think we’ve really succeeded, especially with the amount of kids here today,” said Werner, noting that she talked to some families that hadn’t been to the fair previously. “What I’m excited about is when we can get our own Lebanon County people out here, when we can get them out of the city and the country to come together.”