How to go
What: The 41st annual A World A’Fair
Where: The Dayton Convention Center, 22 E. Fifth St., Dayton
When: 5 to 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $8 adults, $5 seniors, $4 youth 6-18, free for active military with ID
More info: www.aworldafair.org
When an event has been around as long as A World A’Fair, programming is always a balancing act. It’s important to have the quality international food, culture and entertainment Daytonians have come to expect while also finding innovative ways to draw new attendees to the event.
“The biggest challenge is just keeping it fresh,” said Rosetta Schaffner, first vice president of Dayton International Festival, Inc. “About 12 years ago the people who were mostly in charge kind of changed. We started asking questions about why attendance was down, and we found out people thought it was just the same old thing. For the last 12 years we’ve tried to find something new and innovative every year. That’s a real challenge, and lately I think we’ve been doing a really good job of that.”
The event is at the Dayton Convention Center on Friday through Sunday.
New offerings at the 41st annual international festival range from a large group of African performers to participation from a specialized local organization.
“This year we’ll have the Dancers and Drummers from Burundi,” Schaffner said. “We actually tried to get them here last year, but Homeland Security had some problems with the paperwork so they had to cancel. You don’t realize all the hoops you have to jump through, but it looks like all the paperwork did come through, so they’ll have about 37 drummers and dancers from Burundi.
“We’ve been inviting special guests each year,” she said. “This year we’re going to have the Dayton Chess Club as our special guests. They’re going to have one of the huge floor chess games set up. They’ll have tournaments, simultaneous play going on with their experts, lessons and regular free play. We’re just trying to do something new each year to keep people coming back.”
Schaffner is quick to point out there are also returning features such as a children’s area, a naturalization ceremony and the health fair, which returns to A World A’Fair for the third year. The Kenyan Safari Acrobats are also back by popular demand.
“Whenever we don’t have them anymore people stop in at the office and want to know where they are,” Schaffner said. “So we brought the Kenyan Safari Acrobats back again because that’s what people wanted.”
Beer Passports, a new feature added to A World A’Fair last year, are also back.
“We’re doing fairly well with reaching the family grouping, but we’re always looking for new audiences,” Schaffner said. “We were trying to figure out how we could reach the young, professional crowd that works in the downtown Dayton area. We thought this might be a good way of getting them to come there for happy hour.
“With the Beer Passport they’ll have the opportunity to sample 12 different beers, vote for their favorite and then they’ll be entered into a drawing for a prize,” she continued. “We’re trying to reach another demographic there and the Beer Passports were such a success we decided to do it again.”
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