This year’s Lancaster County Fair will be the end of an era with the Nebraska State Fair leaving Lincoln in 2010, the Lancaster County Fair is preparing to super-size in 2009.

The first day of the fair is always fun and exciting, but there is a little bit of an added excitement in the air this time around.

Even with the majority of his focus on this year's fair, the managing director of the Lancaster Event Center can't help but look forward to the summer of 2009.

"Everybody's excited just thinking about the expansion for next year and the following year. Probably next year we'll stay the same format, but we're going to expand events and more entertainment next yea,r and possibly in 2010 we're going to go to a 10-day fair if we see it's feasible. It takes about a year, year and a half to plan a bigger fair,” said Ron Snover, Lancaster Event Center Director.

Mikki Sanden has been working a booth in the past five Lancaster County Fairs and she is looking forward to the new expanded format next year.

"Super fair means more activities, more vendor booths, more family friendly things going on in a great place, just being kind of on the outskirts of Lincoln with parking, just the ease of everybody coming,” said Mikki Sanden, Watkins Incorporated.

Fair officials are hoping for 70,000 visitors this week, but in the next couple of years Lincoln City Councilman Doug Emery said they might attract a quarter of a million people.

"My hope is that we'll expand this to the 200,000, 250,000 maybe even 300,000, maybe extend the days and this will become a mini-version of the Nebraska State Fair. Will it totally replace the State Fair? No, but I think it's a good alternative,” Emery said.

Ron Snover said the future looks bright for fairgoers in Lancaster County.

"You know, we would've been fine with the state fair with us next door, but that didn't work out that way and if the community needs us to expand and make a bigger fair, we're here for 'em," Snover said.

Snover said he will be touring different parts of the United States in the upcoming weeks to check out different county fairs that have gone to the expanded 10-day fair format. They'll get some ideas from their visits and Snover also invites you, the fairgoers, to let them know what you would like to see at the new super-sized Lancaster County Fair.