For more than a quarter century, Kathie Swift has been the marketing mind behind the state’s biggest annual attraction: The Iowa State Fair.

Through the years, Swift, who is the fair’s director of marketing and public relations, has experienced blast furnace heat, damaging fires, flooding rain and concerts performed by world famous musicians. The fair of 1997 brought one of her most disturbing memories, when a couple that ran a popular funnel cake stand were found murdered.

“I remember that it was a perfect day, cool with a blue sky,” she said. “The manager called and said, ‘Can you come up here. There’s been a shooting.’ I remember the yellow police tape at the scene and the terrible unreality of it all.”

During her tenure, the fair has become the juggernaut that it is today. Last year, more than 1 million people attended the event, the first time it had broken that milestone.

On Thursday, the fair opens for the 149th time with the theme, “One in a Million.”

In 1978, Swift was a public relations specialist at the Lessing-Flynn Advertising Agency in Des Moines, which at one time had handled promotion and marketing for the fair.

The fair’s organizers had just recently decided to bring the responsibilities for the event’s promotion in-house and were searching for a marketing director.

Friends of Swift, who spent time at the fair each year as a child, thought she might jump at the chance to interview and told her about the opening. Swift was chosen for the job and reported for work on April 10 of that year.

Installed at the fair, she had the room to creatively carve out the position, try new ideas and make the event unique to Iowa. Her direction in the years since has helped earn the fair a national reputation. It is considered the definitive state fair in America.

“Marketing the State Fair involves so much, a little of everything at the Fair – livestock, booking entertainment, exhibits, concessions – you get a whole lot closer to what you’re offering the public,” Swift said. “I love the part it all plays in attracting people to the Fair. As with any job, it’s the people you get to know who have an impact on you.”

Reminiscing, Swift talked about the former sheep superintendent, Dewey Johntz, who referred to himself as “just an old shepherd.”

“People like Dewey help build memories for the fair,” Swift said.    Other long-time favorites are the Bill Riley Talent Show, Duffy Lyon’s butter cow sculptures and food – corn dogs, funnel cakes, turkey legs, taffy and cinnamon rolls.

“Everybody wants to see their favorites, and they’re all still here,” she said. “Families keep coming back. Parents and grandparents bring their kids back. The 65-year-olds remember when they were kids and slept in the pens with the sheep and cattle and the horses.”

Camping out at the Fair is a tradition for many who reserve space from year to year. Each camping site is taken long before the filing deadline.

“People hang on to their camp spot for decades,” Swift said. “They celebrate birthdays, wedding anniversaries – a lot of them got married at the Fair because that’s where they met.”

Though the fair itself carries on each year, part of what makes it special are the new and unexpected thrills. Special events helped the fair reach a record-breaking 1,008,174 visitors in 2002.

“From the first of the year, you are on a roller coaster right to the last day of the fair,” Swift said. “The fair is 11 full days of constant motion.”

Grandstand line-ups for this year include Kenny Chesney and Lisa Marie Presley, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Dion’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Reunion XXIV. Last year, a single show by Chesney brought in $237,176.

The most money any one event generated at the fair happen in 1994, when a concert performed by country music star Reba McEntire grossed $291,488. The event was so popular that an additional 5,000 seats were sold on the track.

The last day of any fair is big. This year, the fair ends August 17. Winn’s Thrills of the Universe and a Cajun music event will be featured. Cajun style food and beads will be available.

One of Swift’s annual highlights is working with young interns.

“That’s where I feel I’ve made a difference,” she said. “There was one the first summer. There are three this year. They come from universities around Iowa. They edit, write and proofread. And they keep calling and coming back. One became a livestock reporter in Indianapolis, then moved to Kansas City and still comes back to the Fair.

A constant each year is the weather, though it is constantly unpredictable.

“I remember in 1983 when it was 108 degrees on Older Iowan’s Day,” Swift said.

Gary Slater, the fair’s manager and its chief executive, said keeps a close watch on the weather because it has a large impact on the fair’s profits.

“Sunshine and nice weather mean a lot,” Slater said. “The front gate draws almost half our total revenue for the fair. Hot weather doesn’t seem to bother most people too much, but attendance drops when it rains.”

The budget for last year’s fair was $13 million, Slater said. The fair, a not-for-profit enterprise, does not receive any tax revenue and carries no debt. The biggest part of the budget is the $4.25 million for the salaries for 56 full-time employees.

Paychecks, of course, aren’t the only big expenses. The $21,000 worth of toilet paper is a favorite trivia item. Other expensive bills include $350,000 for electrical power, about $130,000 for water and roughly $80,000 for gas. About 80 percent of the fair’s annual budget is spent in August, Slater said.

For Swift, the most important aspect to the event is the people.

“I love to hear from the people who have come to the fair, gone away, and come back,” she said.

She long ago fell in love with the event, and is already looking forward to next year’s 150-year Sesquicentennial.

She is looking forward to completion of an addition to the museum, a redesign of the Heritage Village and helping design a plan to set up a permanent fund to support the fairgrounds “so that we never again face the critical deterioration of Fair facilities we experienced in the 1980’s.

“I never want to quit,” Swift said. “My wish for the Fair is that it continues to thrive, entertain, educate and provide competition for Iowans and Midwesterners, and that the attendance and satisfaction keep growing. It’s a great job.”