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Who is the Lancaster County Agricultural Society?
The Lancaster Event Center Fairgrounds and the Lancaster County Super Fair are managed for the Lancaster County public by the publicly elected Lancaster County Ag Society board. The LEC Fairgrounds is a non-profit organization setup under Nebraska law in each county back in earliest days of state history. The Lancaster County Agricultural Society has been continuously active since 1870 and today manages the county fairgrounds, known as the Lancaster Event Center, that is open year-round to 300 events with as many as 600,000 visitor days per year that include regional/national/international shows that bring up to $70 million in incremental out-of-county/state visitor spend to our county.
The nine board members are publicly elected volunteers that come from Lancaster County with a passion for the Ag Society’s mission to further the understanding and engagement of the community with the agricultural and natural roots of Lancaster County with a special focus on supporting youth in the 4-H and FFA programs. Annual election for the Ag Society board members (with 3 year terms there are three board members up for election each year) is held each December before the Annual Meeting—see December agenda for details or call the Lancaster Event Center office at 402.441.6545.
The Ag Society had the vision to build the Lancaster Event Center to open on February 1, 2001 after the Lancaster County fair had outgrown the Nebraska State Fairgrounds before it decided to move to Grand Island (now UNL Innovation Campus). Over 750 Lancaster county 4-H/FFA youth participate in year-round 4-H competitions and meetings at the Lancaster Event Center Fairgrounds which culminate in over 5,000 entries in the annual Lancaster County Super Fair competitions as well as another 5,000 Open Class entries from community members of all ages. The Super Fair provides a great learning opportunity as well as chance to earn a berth to compete in the Nebraska State Fair.
The Lancaster County Super Fair is organized entirely by the Lancaster County Ag Society with support from their Lancaster Event Center full-time staff and funded by an approx. $350K operating budget provided from a property tax levy as is done in every county since the inception of the State of Nebraska. The Lancaster County Super Fair is the largest & longest county fair in the state of Nebraska with the lowest per county citizen funding support by far ($3 per Lancaster County resident where most counties support their fair & fairgrounds with $10-30 per citizen) due to the growth in Lancaster County over the years while the funding is capped under a Nebraska state lid law. The Lancaster County Super Fair celebrated its 150th year in 2020.
