Iowa Fair Revamp

State legislators have agreed to budget $1 million in 2007 toward renovations of the 152-year-old Iowa State Fair site as part of a multimillion facelift already in the works.

Included in plans for the fair’s facilities is a $1 million outdoor amphitheatre funded by the Blue Ribbon Foundation opening this summer.

Fair manager and CEO Garly Slater told WOI-TV that with the improvements, the fair is probably in the best physical and financial shape of its existence.

It’s estimated that the fairgrounds generate an estimated $60 million in economic activity annually in central Iowa.