State Fair Cleanup - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

State Fair Cleanup

It was a record breaking year for the 2012 North Dakota State Fair.
After a full week of activity, state fair staff and vendors have started the task of cleaning up the fairgrounds until next year.
Jennifer Thorgramson shows us how quickly the fairgrounds go from Great. Big. Fun. --- to a bit of a ghost town.

Grandstand roars. Midway screams.
And the sweet smell of deep-fat-fried everything - all of it has faded into North Dakota State Fair history - seemingly - overnight.
Murphy Brothers left for neighboring state fairs on Sunday morning.
The food court nearly vacant by Monday.
Leaving state fair staff to ... details.
Unlike the flood of 2011, this mess is easily managed with a broom.
At the State Fair Center, FFA youth from Harvey are packing away plants.
(Wyatt Toso, Harvey FFA) "It's usually pretty exciting moving in for the state fair, but then you get to go home. It's all over. Kind of boring."
2011 projects were allowed this year, so the group has two years worth of projects to haul home.
Toso says it took two trucks and a trailer to get their plants from point A to point B.
Further down the Avenue of Flags, another trailer is set to go.
Swanston Equipment saved their heavy lifting for Monday
(Pete Sigurdson, Swanston Equipment) "It's a big job getting everything moved in here. It takes a couple days to do that. You have to get everything cleaned up so that takes a day or two. Now we're moving home. Everyone is jumping in and trying to get it back as quick as possible."
It's a lot of work and a lot of man hours for one week, but Sigurdson says the business generated by the fair is worth it.
(Pete Sigurdson, Swanston Equipment) "Everything is planned really well. Everything moves in a little slower than it moves out. It goes out very quick."
After hosting 310,839 house guests, the North Dakota State Fairgrounds will be back in no time.
In Minot, Jennifer Thorgramson, KX News.

Dates for the North Dakota State Fair in 2013 are already set for July 19-27.