Homecoming: Fair manager job brings Du Quoin native full circle

DU QUOIN, Ill. — For Du Quoin native Luke Davison, being named manager of the Du Quoin State Fair was like coming home again.

“It is kind of surreal to come all the way around and be in an administrative role now,” Davison said.

As he opens his first Du Quoin State Fair as manager, Davison said he is using his experiences and history with the fair to come up with ideas on how to make the event even better.

“It’s really my responsibility to take what I already know about the fair and then to think creatively for the future about things that you haven’t seen at the fair, that would be interesting for people to see,” he said.

“It’s a balance of nostalgia and new opportunities. If you can find that sweet spot, that’s really what it’s all about.”

Davison’s history with the fair and the fairgrounds goes back to his childhood.

“When I was very young, I would hawk sodas and fiddlesticks in the grandstand and sell programs for the harness races, car races and motorcycle races,” he said.

Davison’s late father, Lyle, was a coal miner, and his mother, Donna, was a school teacher. Luke went to college in the Chicago area, but returned to Du Quoin — and the fairgrounds — during the summers off from school.

“In the summers when I came home from college, I worked summer maintenance at the fairgrounds. I have done almost everything out there, from emptying manure pits to mowing, cleaning bathrooms, patching roads, all the things that our crews do on a daily basis,” he said.

Davison is no stranger to state government, either. He worked for the office of the Illinois secretary of state before moving over to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, when he was hired as fair manager in March.

“I’ve been traveling the greater southern Illinois region and the south central part of the state for years for the secretary of state’s office,” he said.

Upon being hired as fair manager, Davison was in the spotlight — literally. The first major event he managed for the fairgrounds was the Southern Illinois Eclipse Festival.

That event saw the fairgrounds host thousands of visitors to view the total solar eclipse on April 8.

“Most people, when they first take a job, they re inclined to want to ease into it and learn at a pace that seems sustainable. We didn’t have that luxury at the fairgrounds because of the solar eclipse,” Davison said.

“We were hosting this really large eclipse event at the fairgrounds. We had 6,000 to 7,000 people on the fairgrounds for the eclipse.”

But the “trial by fire” — or, rather, eclipse — helped Davison with the planning that he would use to get ready for the 2024 Du Quoin State Fair.

“It helped me learn right away what variables go into planning a large event and how to deal with those variables and what I need to do out on the grounds,” he said.

Throughout the year, the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds hosts major events, from harness races to major car and motorcycle series races, including the Du Quoin Mile, held this year on July 6 and part of the 2024 Progressive American Flat Track championship. That race marked the transition, for Davison, into fair mode.

“The week of July 4 is the benchmark to when everybody starts thinking about the fair. From then on, you really don’t have conversations about things that are not fair related. Most of those conversations can wait until September,” he said.

In addition to planning and managing the Du Quoin State Fair, Davison’s job as manager means that he is responsible for overseeing the ongoing repairs and renovations at the fairgrounds.

The Du Quoin State Fair was founded in 1923 by local businessman W.R. Hayes. He started with a half-mile harness racing track on 30 acres.

Hayes purchased strip-mined land to expand the fairgrounds, expanding it to 1,200 acres. Today, the site, including parkland areas, covers some 1,600 acres.

Renovation and repair and updating the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds has been a work in progress.

Given his history at the fairgrounds, Davison has his eye on the next major project he would like to see accomplished.

“What locals and anyone who attends an event at the fair, what a lot of us would like to see done, is the roads. That would be the next thing to tackle,” he said.

“The roads at the fairgrounds need some work. It would improve a lot of our events. It would improve the day-to-day use by folks around the region.”

Another focus for Davison is the continuing work on the original purpose of the fairgrounds — harness racing and the stables and barns at the fairgrounds.

“We have such a great harness racing tradition here at Du Quoin. We are making repairs to the older horse barns. We have torn down a couple of the older horse barns and those will get rebuilt,” he said.