The Heart of Illinois Fair has returned for its 76th year at the Peoria Exposition Gardens — but with financial struggles looming and difficulty drawing in visitors, organizers are calling it more of an “event” than a fair.
A Peoria mainstay since 1950, the event began July 15 and runs through July 19. In past years, the fair became popular for its Fair Queen Pageant, cattle shows and carnival rides. For the second year in a row, however, organizers have been forced to downsize, offering only motorsports, an indoor flea market, a dog show, beer garden and DJ. All other attractions, including carnival rides, have been postponed.
Charlie Kennell has been on the board of directors for more than 20 years and said attendance has decreased 40% compared to previous years. A few weeks before opening day, he said, the Exposition Gardens Board of Directors voted to cancel the fair and deem it an “event” due to financial issues, a decision he disagreed with given a fuller fair had been planned for 11 months.
“They should’ve told me six months ago,” he said. “I don’t like it, but it’s just what it is. We’re going to go with what happens, happens.”
Kennell said the carnival company the fair would have used also pulled out about a month prior to the opening, despite those rides being the biggest draw.
Present and future of the Heart of Illinois Fair
The event was mostly empty a few hours into opening night July 15, with only a few visitors wandering the dirt paths of the Exposition Gardens. Music, lemonade stands and cornhole took the place of twinkling lights and exhilarated screams.
In June, the Peoria City Council voted to purchase the Peoria Exposition Gardens, eyeing the more than 70 acres of land as a site for future residential development. The land will be marketed to real estate developers, with the hopes that up to 150 homes will be built on the land near Richwoods High School and Northmoor Primary School.
The purchase ushers in a lease agreement allowing the Expo Gardens, and by extension the fair, to operate through September 2026, after which the lease would be month-to-month. The Exposition Gardens exhibit hall is already rented out through the end of September and has contracts to uphold for events like weddings and galas.
Kennell said he is hopeful the next fair will come back stronger, but cited board tension and a decrease in carnival companies as reasons he cannot guarantee there will be an “event” in 2026 at all.
John Davidson, also a member of the board of directors, said he holds fond memories of lemon shake-ups and corn dogs from attending the fair as a kid and is “anguished” to see the fair’s future in jeopardy.
“It’s hard for me to go there, even, because I get a big lump in my stomach from the anxiety that I feel,” Davidson said. “That place was so important to me. It’s just tremendously disturbing.”
Davidson echoed Kennell’s frustration with the rest of the board to call off the fair, saying the fair already had $30,000 worth of contracts with vendors it had to pay regardless of whether it actually happened. Many of those contracts are still being fulfilled through the tractor pulls, demolition derby events and food vendors offered this year.
Davidson hopes the fair can find another location next year, but admits it “would be a big project.” He also thinks the fair might do better if moved to June, August or September since most fairs take place in July, which creates more competition for carnival companies.
“With Peoria buying the grounds, we’re going to have to be looking for somewhere to move,” he said. “I would love to have, next year, the last Heart of Illinois Fair. To do it when we have a carnival, and have a complete fair, so everybody has kind of a nice, lasting memory.”
‘The community has to come out’
For Ted Rhodes, the downsized fair was the first he and his wife had experienced since moving to Peoria from Louisiana in 2024. Rhodes said he was disappointed to see so many attractions postponed, particularly the agricultural and livestock activities, and thinks the fair would need to bring back animals and rides to sustain itself for another year.
Rhodes said he understands the desire to put homes on the Exposition Gardens land, but ultimately wants the fair to have a future.
“It’s a lot of property not to do something with,” he said. “If this is the way the fair’s going, it makes sense, but I’d almost like to see it revitalized differently. Let’s bring back the fair, but that’s easier said than done.”
Rhodes pointed out a recent Peoria visit from a traveling circus group Do Portugal, saying the board could bring in similar acts, or engage with local 4-H clubs and high schools to get young people involved again.
Rhodes said he may go back out to the fair toward the end of the week to see whether more people visit.
“The first hour on the first day is always a little bit slower, so it’s a better question on a Friday or a Saturday after it’s gone to know whether it should continue or not,” he said. “The community as a whole — if they want the fair, they would have to support it.”
Around 6:30 Tuesday, stiltwalker Earl McKenzie, who co-owns EM Stilts and Balloons with his fiancee MaryEllen McKenzie, stood about 4 feet off the ground as he twisted pink and purple balloons into a dog for a young girl.
McKenzie, who moved to Peoria about a year ago with MaryEllen, said he wanted to lend his talents to the event after learning it could be the last chance to do so.
“We didn’t know about the downsize, unfortunately, at the time, but when we did find out about it and hearing about it definitely breaks our hearts,” MaryEllen said. “We really wish that we could’ve seen it when it was in its heyday for sure, but we’re glad, like Earl was saying, to at least be part of possibly one of the last years of it.”
Earl said he would like to see more entertainers back next year, and hopes more of the community will come back out to the fair rather than abandon it.
“We really feel the energy of the fair and everything that’s been here over the years,” he said. “You can just tell this place has had so many good years to it. It’s just cool to be here.”
Melodye Foster owns Big Blue Shaved Ice, making snow cones, lemonade and homemade freeze-dried candy. As a Peoria native, Foster remembers coming to the Heart of Illinois Fair 70 years ago as a child, when bigger rides like the Wild Mouse roller coaster steadily drew visitors in.
“It’s sad because all these other towns get carnivals in,” she said. “A lot of people don’t have money to go out of town, so this would be something locally that wouldn’t cost them hotels or stuff like that.”
Foster has been selling shaved ice at the fair for several years, and has been running her business since 2016. During the 2024 fair, she said, she sold about half her usual supply. This year, she predicts she’ll sell even less.
Regarding the sale of the Exposition Gardens, Foster said she is skeptical of what the city can do with 70 acres, but hopes the city does not price people out of future housing despite it being deemed affordable.
While anything can happen, Foster said she doesn’t see the fair coming back for another year if it remains without a carnival, especially if visitors continue to dwindle.
“In order to have events, the community has to come out,” she said. “Even though it’s not 100%, they still need to come out, know that we’ve got a couple of food trucks, and support. Because if we don’t get no support, no, there won’t be nothing going forward. That’s my prediction.”
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Once iconic, Peoria’s Heart of Illinois Fair is struggling. What does the future hold?
Reporting by Christina Avery, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
