(Radio Iowa) – The Dubuque County Board of Supervisors has sold the 30 acres of the Dubuque County Fairgrounds for a dollar. The new owner is the former owner — the Dubuque County Fair Association. General Manager John Bries says it’s kind of a land swap.
“Everybody says, ‘Well, you know, we can’t believe the county is selling to you for a dollar.’ Well, there’s reason to that,” Bries said. “In ’78-’79 we sold them 30 acres for a dollar, so they’re just returning that.” The fairgrounds has been in its current location since 1953 and the association’s lease on the property expired in 2019 — but the document wasn’t found until 2021.
“And then nothing was still done about it, so there was still no lease,” Bries said. “I took over in October of 2024 and found out there was no lease and that was one of my top priorities, to get something done for here so that we could continue doing business without having that hanging over our heads.” Bries says having the deed for the entire 66 acres will help with fundraising.
“Right now, I think the road block that I run into is everybody thinks, well, ‘The county owns that. They should have to pay for everything. They should have to pay for the upkeep. They should have to pay for all the barns to be redone, the buildings to be redone. That’s our taxpayers’ money,'” Bries said. “The fairgrounds has always been self-sufficient. We put up the buildings. We maintain the buildings. We pay for everything.”
The 2026 Dubuque County Fair is scheduled to run from July 28th through August 2nd. The first events in Iowa’s county fair season are the Wapello County Regional Fair in Eldon and the Worth County Fair in Northwood. Both start on June 17th.
