The Grain Valley Fair begins Friday, September 6th with a  full slate of activities on Friday and Saturday.
     Local radio personalities Jayme and Wickett from 98.1 KMBZ will do a live remote from 10:00am—2:00pm, followed by KMBZ hosts Dana and Parks from 2:00pm—6:00pm. The beer garden, sponsored by the Grain Valley Partnership, opens at 2:00pm and the carnival midway and vendor booths open at 4:00pm.
     FOCUS for Grain Valley will offer bingo on Friday evening and Saturday, and a full slate of activities at the fairgrounds are listed on page 2 of this edition.
     The 2nd Annual Grain Valley Fair 5K begins at 8:00am on Saturday. Registration for the race continues until race day.
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     The following roads will be closed or have limited access from 7:50am—9:30am to allow for the Grain Valley Fair 5K:
-Main Street from James Rollo to 
  Eagles Parkway
-Eagles Parkway from Main Street to
  Cross Creek Drive
-N. Cross Creek Drive from Eagles 
  Parkway to Broadway
-Broadway from N Cross Creek Drive 
  to NW Parker
-NW Parker from Broadway to NW
  Willow
-NW Willow from NW Parker to Kirby
-Kirby from NW Willow to Yennie
-Yennie from Kirby to Main Street
-James Rollo Drive
 
     The Grain Valley Parade begins at Noon on Saturday.
     The following roads will be closed or have limited access from 11:55am—2:00pm during the parade:
-Eagles Parkway from Kirby Road to
  Main Street
-Main Street from Eagles Parkway to
  Walnut Street
-Walnut Street from Main Street to
  Kirby Road
-Kirby Road from Walnut Street to
  Eagles Parkway

    Several bands are scheduled to perform Saturday evening at the Pavilion behind the Community Center and fireworks will begin at 9:30pm.
    Security at large public events is increasingly a concern, especially given recent shootings throughout the country.  Mayor Mike Todd said the Grain Valley Fair committee has taken another look at security measures for the festival and feels confident in their plans.
     “During the evening hours of the Fair both nights we have two off duty Grain Valley police officers who are brought in to patrol the fair grounds.  They do that by foot and via one of our UTVs we have.  Fair staff is able to communicate directly with them via radio and in turn they can communicate with our other on duty officers via radio if they were to need additional assistance,” Todd said.
     “In addition to that we have VIPS (Volunteers in Police Service) volunteers who also patrol the fair grounds and parking lots as well.  Another thing we have going in our favor is that the police station is adjacent to the Fair as well so that is a deterrent plus helps out with response times if we were to need additional assistance.”
     For more information on the Grain Valley Fair, including a listing of vendors and schedule of events, visit www.grainvalleyfair.com.
 

​       Registration for the Grain Valley Fair Parade is now open. The Grain Valley Police Department’s Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) program is organizing this year’s parade, which will take place at Noon on Saturday, September 7th.
      “This is our first effort in organizing the parade. Mayor Todd and staff had the structure well in place.  We are doing only one thing different this year,  in that we are charging entrants excluding 501c3 entities.  The registration fees support our Law Enforcement Scholarship Fund,” Cindy Bell, VIPS Secretary said.
     This year’s parade theme is "Broadway Shows".  The parade categories are:  Specialty, Best Dance Routine, Most Humorous, Community Spirit, Best Youth Group, Best Float and Best Automobile. The community parade also serves as the high school homecoming parade.
     “We have 24 active members on our roster.  It will take as many VIPS as available on Sept. 7th to man the intersections, direct vehicle and foot traffic and just be visible to the public for safety and questions. The Boys Scouts are the biggest help in lining up the parade entries.,” Bell said.
     Parade forms and entry fees can be mailed or delivered to the police department and must be received by Friday, August 23rd.
     An entry form for the parade can be found on the Grain Valley News website, www.grainvalleynews.com.
 

​     Things are hopping in Grain Valley, and we will be bringing you some exciting things right here in the Valley News this summer.  Believe it or not, planning for the Grain Valley Fair on September 6th and 7th has been ongoing for several months now. 
     We are striving to continue to make it a great event for the entire family with some great returning events and some new additions as well.  Of course the Carnival will be back along with a great selection of vendors.  Vendor signups are up from where they were this time last year and our food choices look to be growing as well. 
     Not only will you still be able to enjoy a great tasting burger from the Burger Barn, but you can also enjoy some Kettle Corn, a corn dog, some great BBQ, and lots of other choices.  New this year will be fresh made Pork Rinds and returning to wash it all down will be Keck’s Root beer.
     One of the returning events this year will be the Fair 5K on September 6th.  We had a great turn out last year and hope to grow that number this year.  If you aren’t into running, that’s fine, you can always walk the course if you prefer. 
     New this year as part of the 5K will be a Kid’s Fun Run.  It is a shorter distance for kids to run, but they still get all the cool stuff that comes with the 5K.  For more information including what the shirts and custom medals look like check out the registration at https://runsignup.com/Race/MO/GrainValley/GrainValleyFair5K.
     After a one year hiatus we are also excited to announce that 98.1 KMBZ will once again be broadcasting live from the Fair on Friday September 6th.  Jayme and Wickett will be live from 10 AM-2 PM and Dana and Parks will be live from 2 PM-6PM. 
     That will be followed by Grain Valley Idol, which is a new event being put on by the Grain Valley Partnership.  If you have ever wanted to be a Superstar make sure to keep an eye out for more information regarding Grain Valley Idol to be coming out.
     And that is just the beginning.  On Saturday September 8th, we still have the Grain Valley Community Parade.  It is one of the highlights of the weekend and this year the Grain Valley VIPS will be heading it up.  Keep an eye out for more information regarding the Parade to be coming out from them in the near future. 
     In addition to the Parade there are tons of things happening again on Saturday at the Fair.  The cornhole tournament will be making a return with some exciting changes, live music will once again be the entertainment highlight at the Pavilion, and new this year will the addition of an Exotic Petting Zoo.  Young and old alike will enjoy feeding the camels, zebras, and bison. 
     If you like live music, make sure to check out our schedule online for our complete list of bands performing on Saturday September 7th.  We try every year to bring in something for everyone.  Our headliners this year start with the Tom Petty tribute band Petty Theft. 
     As for our main headliner.  Make sure to break out the Aquanet to get that hair as big as you can, dig those leg warmers and ripped jeans out of the closet, and let’s see those mullets as Member’s Only will rock the stage with recognizable hits of the 80s.
     Finally, closing the whole weekend out will be our Fair Fireworks Show on Saturday night.  It will bring a great end to a great weekend of fun in Grain Valley.  If you want to stay up to date as to what is happening with the Fair and keep an eye on the schedule of events the best places to are our Facebook page Grain Valley Fair and our website www.grainvalleyfair.com.  We look forward to seeing everyone there and hope for some dry weather.