GOSHEN — The Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds isn’t just home to one of the country’s largest county fairs. It attracts recreational vehicle rallies, auctions and the Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale.
Thousands gather, including more than 200,000 during the nine-day fair each July. The rock band Daughtry will take the stage this summer for a concert that some will watch from free grandstand seats and others will buy tickets for so they can sit in folding chairs on the dirt track directly in front of the stage.
Fair officials are proposing relocating that track — all but the stretch between the stage and grandstand — to make way for an expanded livestock show pavilion as part of a master plan that may guide how the fairgrounds change over the next quarter century.
“It’s basically the first comprehensive overall master plan the fairgrounds have ever had,” said Bryan Blair, general manager.
Bullock, Smith & Partners Inc. and Markin Consulting LLC submitted a plan in December and Blair presented it to the fair board Wednesday night.
The fairgrounds at 17746 C.R. 34, Goshen, on the east side of the city, grew with the purchase of 253 acres in 2011. Yet this plan focuses on what’s inside the gates of the fairgrounds, or has been for decades, rather than the new land.
Under the first phase of the plan, a new livestock show pavilion would be built on the grounds. Two livestock show arenas are on the grounds now, but they’re older and 4-H livestock leaders and fair officials have been murmuring about the need for a larger one for a number of years.