This Labor Day, as you enjoy the many holiday events in Louisville because you are off work, is a good time to think about all the people who help put on the events. For event organizers and managers, construction crews, food vendors, cleanup crews, security guards, medical personnel, and musicians and other performers, this is not a day of rest.
The State Fair By The Numbers
You can get a perception of the workers involved in event staging if you examine the recently ended Kentucky State Fair. An interesting article in the Courier-Journal by Sheldon S. Shafer throughout some numbers that made you think of the people behind it. When you think of all the disposable items that someone also had to manufacture, get an even better view of the labor involved. You can read the whole article at article here, but here are a few interesting tidbits from his article "The Kentucky State Fair by the numbers."
· The state fair had 39 rides on its midway, each operated by several different people each day.
· 91 artists played over 100 knee hours of music in entertainment tents and at Cardinal Stadium and Freedom Hall during the fair
· Over 100 cases of pork shoulder, processed by meatpacking employees, were cooked at The Q Tent from Swift Processing in Butchertown. This was just part of the 100,000 pounds of pork prepared and cooked by fair vendors in total.
· Workers from Newton's Homemade Ice Cream made 180 gallons of a screen each day on-site, while other fair labor cooked 25,000 corn dogs per vendor.
· Bingo callers managed over 500 games of bingo on Senior Day.
· Stable hands prepared over 2,500 horse stalls and newly 1200 pages for poultry, pigeons, and rabbits.
· Factory workers somewhere produced large quantities of disposable products, such as about 25,700 cups used by the average beer vendor, over 68,000 trash bags, and vast quantities of napkins, silverware, and food containers.
Worker-Powered Events In Louisville Make A Big Impact
The fair was expected to attract over 600,000 people for in impact of $16.8 million on the local economy. Few other Louisville events are on the same scale as the State Fair the events leading up to the Kentucky Derby, but all take place due to the labor of many unnamed workers who we celebrate today.
Happy Labor Day from Jessica Gaines Jarboe at Louisville Gaines Real Estate.
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