Kenton County Fair Association — Local services in Independence

This fair doesn't even deserve the 1 star I had pick. I pre-purchased 16 tickets, $128.00 from the Independence Festival. My whole family and I planned on going Saturday and spending the entire evening there. When we arrived we were told that they decided to close the fair early and forbid us from entering. They would not give a refund as we are sitting there with 16 tickets that were already purchased. They stated they were not reopening at all and that was the last day of it, this was about 4:45pm. I had a similar experience last year also. Pre-purchased tickets and when we arrived, they closed 20 mins later. The kids had time to ride 1 ride. They workers are rude, nasty and unprofessional. They acted like we were a bother to them. The whole pre-selling tickets is a scam. I believe they do that bc they know half of them will not be used bc they do not honor the hours they set. I will never "Donate" my money to them again. When I called to speak to someone about it, the rude man told me that I could have came Monday thru Thursday bc they were open the entire day. I responded to him that most people work Monday thru Friday and are unable to attend them days late into the evenings. Regardless of what day I planned on going, they were supposed to be open Monday thru Saturday. At least 10 families had the exact same situation as me, they were also turned away at the same time my family was. This fair apparently makes its money by doing...

I think one's experience would change depending on the particular event at the time. I went to the Haunted Derby event recently.

The good, the demolition derby was a lot of fun! The people are humble, nice, and helpful. The kids loved the petting area!

The bad, there wasn't much to do. Like 3 bouncy areas and a few very niche vendors. They were supposed to have a trick or treat. But no one had any clue where or when. Despite bags given out at the gate by employees. The food was gross, expensive, and the lines were long. They had Donatos pizza, but it looked like it was hours old. No funnel cake or any other fun festival foods.

I felt the derby was worth the $15 ticket. Bring your own chairs or blankets for the derby. Sometimes they have some white ones out and...

We expected a lot more from this fair. We went on a Thursday night a few hours after opening, and parking was confusing and difficult. We thought $12 including rides was a bargain. We paid more than we expected because only one person could process the senior discount and the girl helping us would have to walk away and search for that person. It took about 20 minutes after we paid to get our hands stamped. There were very few rides, and none of them were great. The lines for the rides were crazy long, and the kids ended up wanting to leave after two rides. Overall I think this event is a pass. The space is too small for good rides and the amount of people, and the entry process is very...