Overview The Western Idaho Fair is one of Idaho's three state fairs, ten days at the end of August on the Expo Idaho grounds outside Boise, and the people who have come through it since 1897 run from Charles Lindbergh and Ronald Reagan to Muhammad Ali and Johnny Cash. It opens on the third Friday of August and closes on the fourth Sunday, and concerts on the grounds come with fair admission at no extra charge. The other two state fairs are the Eastern Idaho Fair in Blackfoot and the North Idaho Fair in Coeur d'Alene. On site The fair has sat at the corner of Chinden Boulevard and Glenwood since 1967, on grounds now called Expo Idaho, surrounded by Garden City. Livestock shows run in the barns, while carnival rides, a sky ride, pig races, petting zoos, food vendors and free concert stages spread across the rest of the grounds. Potato processor J.R. Simplot, whose frozen fries went to McDonald's, was a fan of the fair's draft horse and mule show and rarely missed a fair in his 99 years. Audience The fair's own figures put 85% of attendees in Ada and Canyon counties, in the Treasure Valley, and the fair describes its crowd as families across generations, with food and music fans among them. Talent and Influencers Past guests and acts include Slim Pickens in 1946, William Shatner in 1968, The Doobie Brothers in 1976, the Charlie Daniels Band in 1984 and 1988, Reba McEntire and Conway Twitty in 1986, REO Speedwagon in 1997 and 2007, Ted Nugent in 2002, Foreigner in 2009 and 2013, and Styx and "Weird Al" Yankovic in 2012. Track record It began in Boise in 1897 as the Idaho Intermountain Fair. In 1902 the fair association bought 84 acres and booked Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, and in 1913 it ran its first full rodeo, the Boise Stampede. The fair changed its name five times between 1913 and 1935, stopped for four years in World War II, and was reorganized under the Ada County Commissioners in 1936. The 2020 fair was canceled for COVID-19. Brand presence The top sponsorships put a name on a major area of the fair, such as the Expo Building, a stage or a barn, with the name on the maps, mentions from the stages, banners and web and social promotion. Below that, a sponsor can take a gate or a featured day with a booth, giveaways and PA reads, or name a single exhibit or contest.