Yes, the parking fee is $20. Here’s why:
A portion of our parking fees go to the Lingohocken Fire Company and Bucks FOP who serve as our parking attendants and the rest covers fees associated with the Fair. Here are a few things to understand:
- Everyone on the Fair Committee is a volunteer – no one is earning a cent. Most are giving a week of vacation from their regular job to help run the Fair.
- The Fair faces the same increasing costs as everyone else – whether it is safety inspections, emergency response, insurance, electric &fuel, animal bedding and hay, sanitation, taxes, maintenance and electrical. Everything is more expensive.
- There are fewer volunteers to help with some of the tasks associated with the Fair. This means we now have to pay for tasks that used to be performed by volunteers like clean-up and maintenance of the fairgrounds.
- The Fair is a 501C3 organization. Any money that is left over after Fair fees, annual taxes, insurance, property maintenance, and funds needed to start up the Fair next year are used to make donations to community non-profits.
If requested, the parking volunteers can give you a receipt for use with your tax deductible donation. We love the Fair and we think it is a great community tradition that should continue. We hope you do too. But, to make that happen, we have to make difficult decisions. The parking increase was one of them. We hope this explains why. Hope to see you at the Fair – August 16-20!
