Turner will headline

Jay County Fair Board had a decision to make.

After attendance was fairly low for the fair’s Jarrod Niemann concert in 2018, members saw two options.

Go big in hopes of filling the fairgrounds like it did for Hunter Hayes in 2013.

Or go small, minimizing the risk of financial losses in the case of another small crowd.

They decided to go big.

The fair board officially announced this morning that Josh Turner will headline its 2019 grandstand entertainment with a concert July 6, as the fair opens on a Saturday. LANCO will serve as the opener for Turner.

While 4-H activities have started on a Saturday for several years, grandstand entertainment and other activities have run Monday through Saturday. Board members decided it was time for a change.

“Part of the reason we did that was we were hoping to draw more of a crowd than a Thursday night show,” said board president Brian Aker, noting the goal of drawing more attendance from outside of the county for the big concert. “That was part of the reason we went with a bigger show this year.”

The earlier date also gets the fair concert a few days further removed from the annual four-day Country Concert event in nearby Fort Loramie, Ohio. 

Turner’s most recent album, “I Serve a Savior,” debuted at No. 1 on Nielsen’s Country Albums Chart. He was nominated for Country Album of the Year and Male Country Vocal Performance at the 2007 Grammy Awards.

He has had four songs — “Your Man,” “Why Don’t We Just Dance,” “All Over Me” and “Would You Go With Me” — reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs charts. Three others have reached the top 10.

“He’s country. He’s been around a while,” said Aker. “A lot of the people who come to the fair every year appreciate his kind of music.

“And then we thought bringing LANCO in would bring a younger generation of country music listeners to the fair.”

LANCO, a five-man band that will be touring the United Kingdom in May, has gone multi-platinum with its debut album “Hallelujah Nights.” It includes the song “Greatest Love Story,” which climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country charts in late 2017. Other popular songs by the band include “Born to Love You” and “Long Live Tonight.”

Tickets for the concert will go on sale Friday at jaycountyfair.com.

In addition to the Saturday concert, the fair board is offering free gate admission to the fairgrounds on its opening weekend.

Sunday’s entertainment will include an afternoon monster truck show at the grandstand. There will also be a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Farmer’s Building, with entertainment to follow, an apple pie baking contest and the Farm Bureau cook-off.

“We’re looking for change,” said Aker. “The fair has kind of fell into a rut. So we thought opening it up to two weekends would give people the opportunity … to come out to the fair.”

Part of the grandstand entertainment schedule will remain the same, with hog wrestling Monday night, 3Bar J Rodeo on Tuesday and demolition derbies on the closing Friday and Saturday.

New grandstand offerings will include harness racing on Wednesday evening.

“It was an opportunity for them to bring the harness racing to the evening to try to draw a little better crowd for that,” said Aker.

And the band 45 RPM, which focuses on ’60s and ’70s music, on Thursday.

Midway entertainment from Maple Leaf Amusements will run Monday through Saturday.

Aker said fairgoers should expect continued changes in years to come, adding that fair board members are open to suggestions as they make plans for the future.