DECATUR - Decatur's Farm Progress Show has the potential to be
the most well attended Farm Progress Show in recent history.
It could break the high attendance numbers of 450,000 to 500,000
visitors, hit just before the farm depression of the mid-1980s,
said Matt Jungmann, national shows manager for Farm Progress
Companies.
"That number hasn't been touched (since)," Jungmann said at
Tuesday's Ag Cafe, a quarterly luncheon held by the Chamber of
Commerce of Decatur and Macon County. The Grain Journal sponsored
Tuesday's event.
The backing for Jungmann's guesstimate is sheer number of
exhibitors who have already secured space at the show. Only six of
748 exhibit spaces remained available as of Tuesday morning, he
said. A dozen exhibitors already have been out to see the site in
its infancy.
The farm trade show is generating increased interest this year
because it will be its first year not held in the middle of fields
vulnerable to the elements. Decatur will host the Farm Progress
Show Aug. 30, 31 and Sept. 1 at the site, and at least nine other
times in the next 20 years.
Progress City will have luxuries such as concrete streets,
street lights and air conditioned restrooms. Facilities at Richland
Community College will be used. A concert site will be constructed.
Even if it rains, Progress City won't become a lagoon.
It may even be prettier than the bare bones city that the plans
suggest.
An idea to bring hints of the Million Flower Project to the Farm
Progress Show are being discussed, according to David McLaughlin,
horticulture instructor at Richland, and Martin Andreas, assistant
to the chief executive at Archer Daniels Midland Co.
"I went over to the Iowa show this last year - it was dusty, it
was dirty, it was not attractive," Andreas said.
An arch of flowers could create a grand entrance at Decatur's
site, he said, though there isn't a price estimate yet on the idea
and funding hasn't been secured.
But in the coming days, just about everything else about this
year's show will be set.
The printed program will be finalized. The concrete will begin
being spread. Permanent exhibits will start going up.
If there is to be a concert held during the Farm Progress Show,
we'll soon know who it is and when they'll take the stage, Jungmann
said. At this point, he'll only say organizers are in contact with
a country and western band "that you can sing along with."
