State Fair Looking for Campus Overhaul in Grand Island
By Aaron Bonderson 
, Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media
Dec. 23, 2021, 11 a.m. ·
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The Nebraska State Fair and its stakeholders formed ‘The 1868 Foundation’ to deliver a remodeling proposal. In the plan released Wednesday, the foundation asked for $25 million from the money given to Nebraska as part of the infrastructure bill. The money would then be used to revamp its campus at Grand Island’s Fonner Park as soon as 2023.
Lindsey Koepke with the foundation said renovations would help bring more eyes to Nebraska’s agriculture brand.
“We look to focus the campus of Fonner Park into more of an agricultural destination, if you will, as opposed to just another livestock facility,” Koepke said.
The plan would add hundreds of thousands of square feet to livestock barns and arenas, in addition to parking and event spaces.