Construction will keep 2014 Fair St. Louis off Arch grounds

ST. LOUIS • Fair St. Louis will move off the Gateway Arch grounds in 2014, with the celebration shifting possibly to Forest Park.

Officials with the fair and the mayor’s office would not confirm the move, but St. Louis parks director Gary Bess said he’s planning for the event to be at Forest Park.

“They’re not saying for sure that’s where it’s going to be. It’s all in the planning stages,” Bess said Thursday. “But I’ve been told to proceed as if that’s where” it will be held.

“It’s going to be centered around the Grand Basin; Art Hill will be the epicenter,” he added. “The fireworks, the air show, the main-stage concert acts will be here in the park.”

Last month, a $380 million plan to revamp the Gateway Arch area downtown was unveiled. That work, to be done between now and October 2015, precludes the fair being held at its traditional site.

The fair will be held from July 4 through July 6, a Friday-Sunday span.

Jeff Rainford, Mayor Francis Slay’s chief of staff, would only say on Thursday: “The 2014 version of Fair St. Louis is unlike any other in fair history, at a location unlike any other before.”

Rainford added, “It can’t be held on the Arch grounds.”

Meg Shuff, spokesperson for Fair St. Louis, said organizers are evaluating alternatives.

“They are excited to make a formal announcement and anticipate that will take place in late October,” Shuff said in a statement.

Construction plans now call for substantial portions of the roads around the Arch grounds to be under construction from April 2014 through July 2015; and sections of Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard will be closed from November through September 2015.

Bess said organizers expect the daily attendance at Fair St. Louis would only be about 50,000 at Forest Park.

“The park can absorb about 200,000 visitors at one time,” Bess said.

Fair officials quit providing attendance figures in the early 1990s after complaints about the totals being inflated. The last attendance estimate given to the Post-Dispatch was in 1990, when officials said a Tuesday opening day drew 350,000.

Bess said the Great Forest Park Balloon Race and Balloon Glow draws about 100,000 people on each day of the two-day event. The recent LouFest music festival drew 15,000 on its first day and 16,000 on its second.

For the fair, planners are looking into operating shuttles from Washington University and St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, as well as a shuttle inside the park, Bess said, adding, “That’s still being worked out.”

Forest Park was considered as a site for the 2008 festivities due to flooding along the riverfront. The Soldiers Memorial area downtown was eventually chosen.

Steve Schankmann, president of Contemporary Productions and a former chairman of the fair committee, told the Post-Dispatch in an interview after the 2008 fair ended that the Art Hill area had been considered.

“But how do you handle all the traffic with the History Museum and the zoo?” Schankmann said at the time. “And fireworks and animals together are not a good thing. When they hear those things go off, they think it’s gunfire. You don’t want a herd of zebra running down the street.”

Schankmann, who was unavailable for comment Thursday, also said in the 2008 interview, “The park is a nice setting, but it doesn’t promote downtown St. Louis.”

Laura Peters, spokeswoman for the Muny, said the fair likely would be unable to use that venue for concerts. She said a show will open July 7, with full rehearsals set for July 5 and July 6.