A Private Fair

The Tennessee State Fair is expected to take place after all in September with the help of private companies.

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean previously decided to nix the fair, mirroring the vote of the Fair Board in 2008 to end its operations at the state fairgrounds in south Nashville. The board was seeing a rapid depletion of its reserve funds and a study concluded the fair was in a poor location, according to WKRN-TV.

The fair will now take place, at least this year, at the fairgrounds with the help of Nashville-based Rockhouse Partners and Mississippi-based North American Midway Entertainment.

“Having a private entity continue the state fair for one more year at no cost to the city is a good use of the site while we take this time to consider the long-term options that will best serve the surrounding community and our city as a whole,” Dean said in a statement.

The Rockhouse-NAME partnership said it would lease the fairgrounds and pay the city a portion of the revenue from each ticket sold, according to the Tennessean.

Despite its name, the fair is regional with most attendees from Nashville and surrounding counties.