Faron Wahl, Manager
We’re about to witness a transformation. It’s an annual happening, but certainly one of spectacular proportions. It’s our transition into the Steam Threshing Jamboree at Prairie Village.
Two weeks after you read this we’ll have up-shifted several gears at the Village, in preparation for the first Jamboree events on Thursday, August 25. As is the case each year, the specific plans for the 2016 event were spun into motion long ago, but the brunt of the details have come together over the past couple of months. And that final week leading up to Day 1 will be both wild and wonderful, perhaps depending on who you ask.
It will start with the long-advertised, temporary cessation of public camping at day’s end Friday, August 19, creating fully-vacated camping areas for our Jamboree-reserved campers to begin knitting themselves carefully into a snug campground tapestry of their assigned positions. We encourage them to arrive anytime beginning that Saturday the 20th, as it’ll take significant time and effort to position them all.
The onsite census of tractors and equipment will begin climbing steadily by the trailer-load delivered off of Highway 34, added to many others who will peek into the sunlight after their hibernation of storage at the Village. By the time Jamboree rolls into full form, our property will boast a sensational equipment array of colors, brands, and eras. And somehow, they’ll all end up in fashionable display lines compounded with a state of impressive parade readiness.
Our workforce, the lion’s share of it volunteer, will swell steadily in parallel with the increasing numbers of guests arriving throughout the week. Security, gate personnel, parking attendants, kitchen and food stand workers, railroad crews, ag equipment operators, and many, many others will descend on the property to process, direct, feed, entertain, and protect the many fine folks who will join us. It amounts to a small army serving a larger one.
And you can’t host thousands of folks without our own goods and services vendors upping the ante. Trash pickup that’s normally a regular dumpster twice a week will graduate into a different system entirely to handle the sheer volume. Our portable toilet company will oversee the expansion of our normal half-dozen units on the grounds to well over 90 of them, all needing setup and prep. Soft drink vendors will deliver nearly 250 cases of beverages, amounting to a literal mountain of bottles ready for chilling. Toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and paper towels will be dispatched in handsome quantities.
How does this all translate? From a 500 foot aerial view, it may look like a recently disturbed anthill. But here on the ground, beginning to see the faces and equipment, communicating with the exhibitors, and working closely with dozens of great folks to pull it all together, this level of preparation can only mean one thing: we’re about to kick off an exposition of impressive offerings, mammoth fun, and deep tradition. It spells the return to this magnificent event centered on the settling and harvest of the Dakota plains – a foundation to which we’re all tied and indebted.
And wow….it’s going to be a great time!