147th Annual Fairbury Fair
AUGUST 16 - 20, 2023
FAIRBURY, ILLINOIS
Sawyer Brown & Leah Marlene LIVE
The Fairbury Fair is excited to announce the entertainment headliners for the 2023 Fairbury Fair! This year the fair will be hosting 2 nights of national entertainment. On August 16, 2023, a Central Illinois native turned Nashville Recording Artist, Leah Marlene will be at the fair with Patrick McGreal. Then, on Friday, August 18, 2023, hailed as the “Rolling Stones of Country Music”, Sawyer Brown has 23 albums, over 50 chart singles and several CMA, ACM and CMT awards under its belt. Sawyer Brown will be performing in front of the historical covered grandstands in Fairbury, Illinois! Central Illinois Based, Stone Cold Cowboys, will be opening the show on Friday Night!
Tickets start at just $20 (Wednesday) / $25 (Friday) and will be available for sale online starting at 8 AM on Friday, December 9, 2022. All online tickets will include gate admission. Ticket prices will increase by $10 on the day of the event for both nights (Aug 16 & Aug 18). Information on other fair events will be announced over the next several weeks.
Sawyer Brown’s live shows are legendary. Having been described as “the Rolling Stones of Country Music,” the band bounds onto the stage night after night, delivering its own unique brand of high-energy entertainment. That excitement has been on display since the very first time Sawyer Brown stepped foot onstage in the early eighties. Over the years and over 4500 shows (and counting), the band has earned its place as one of the premier live acts in music. They’ve released twenty-three albums and charted more than 50 singles – including the number one hits “Step That Step”, “Some Girls Do” and “Thank God for You” – leading to several CMA, ACM, and CMT Awards, and their story is still being written. The hits have just kept coming – “Used to Blue”, “The Race is On”, “This Time”, “Treat Her Right”, “I Don’t Believe in Goodbye”, “Hard to Say”, and “Drive Me Wild.”
Leah Marlene is a songwriter, artist, and producer with a deeply rooted desire to create art unlike anything you have heard before. With a unique, engaging voice and a songwriting style that combines elements of folk, rock, pop, soul, funk, jazz and more, she cannot be put into a box. Leah grew up in a house full of music and guitars as her father, Derry Grehan, is a songwriter and lead guitarist with the Canadian band, Honeymoon Suite. He passed along his knowledge and passion for writing and performing. Leah began singing and writing her own songs at a very young age and never looked back! She has been performing professionally since the age of ten and releasing music since she was thirteen. After graduating high school, Leah spent two years studying songwriting at Belmont University in Nashville. She then returned back to the midwest to produce her latest album, “Many Colors.” Now twenty-one years old, Leah most recently came off an incredible run on season 20 of American Idol, where she released her latest original single, "Flowers" and placed second runner up of the season! Leah is a lover of people and her greatest hope is that her music may meet you exactly where you are at and help you feel whatever it is you need to feel in a given moment.
"We've Got A Good Thing Growing"
The Fairbury Fair Corporation as we know it today was originally formed in January 1876 as The Fairbury Union Agricultural Board. They purchased a 21-acre tract south of town as a location to host the first Fairbury Fair which was held in 1877 on the newly purchased fairgrounds.
The Fairbury Fair continued to prosper and in 1903 the board constructed a large covered grandstand structure out of cypress trees on the property. It appears as though horse racing was the main attraction for the fairgoers until around 1916 when the fairboard decided to make some improvements to the facilities and started hosting a few amateur auto races.
The American Legion John Joda Post 54 was chartered with the National American Legion on July 18, 1919. The post was officially incorporated by the state of Illinois as a nonprofit on November 22, 1920.
The popularity of auto racing in the 1920’s was fast becoming the main event at nearly all fairgrounds across the county. Records show the first races as part of the annual Fairbury Fair were held in 1922. The purses at Fairbury were second to none on the fair circuit, which in the coming years would attract the top names with huge crowds. The fair would continue to prosper for several years until around late 1935 and into 1936 when they started to develop some financial shortfalls.
With the fair in financial difficulties and broke, in 1936 the American Legion John Joda post 54 adopted a resolution to purchase the fair property for $6,350 and took control of the grounds and the fair in 1937. The American Legion John Joda Post 54 to this day still oversees the overall operation of the Fairbury Fair Corporation and the management of the fair.
The current Fairbury Fair Corporation was incorporated on February 17, 1939 to operate a county fair within Livingston County, Illinois, as an agricultural fair for the advancement and improvement of livestock and agricultural products and methods. The Legion and Fairboard moved the racing from the former half mile flat harness racing track to the current banked smaller track during the offseason between 1945 and 1946 seasons.
The fairgrounds and the speedway have gone through several phases of major improvement, the first being in 1945 and then again in 1990. The Legion and the Fairboard decided to invest nearly a half million dollars to redo the track to its current size and shape in 1990. They invested hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to enlarge the racing surface. This decision has proven to be one of the best decisions they have ever made. The speedway has continuously made improvements since that time. In 2017, another nearly half million dollars was invested in the facility with all new bathrooms on the north and south side of the fairgrounds property, new safety catch fence, as well as all new aluminum bleachers on the northeast side of the speedway.
At the end of the 2018 racing and fair season, it was voted on by the John Joda Legion Post 54 to sell off the assets and get out of the race promoting business due in part to the declining legion membership. The Legion was able to secure a deal with Fairbury resident and promoter Matt Curl to purchase the assets and continue the rich tradition of racing at the fairgrounds. Matt has also entered into a lifetime lease agreement with the Fairbury Fair Corporation to provide a home for The Fairbury Fair to continue every year as long as the fair can remain viable.
Contact Us
815-692-3222 (week of fair) - 309-838-9304 (all other times)
