(WACO, Texas) — With an estimated 200,000 people expected to pass through the Heart O' Texas Fair & Rodeo, organizers say safety is a top priority — and they're backing that up with hundreds of first responders on the grounds every day.
Sgt. Charles Conner, chief security officer for the HOT Fair & Rodeo, said staffing decisions are driven by data and national trends.
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"We look at numbers every year, numbers to gauge. We look at trends throughout the world at other fairs, other carnivals, and we base our number of personnel off that," Conner said.
One of the biggest safety measures this year is a strict policy on what attendees can bring through the gates.
"We've implemented, as many venues across the country have, a clear bag policy, just for our customers' safety. We have magnetometers. So everyone that walks through the gate is scanned by a magnetometer, and then we also wand to help keep people from bringing in something that they don't need to," said Dustin Coufal, president of Extraco Event Center.
Conner made clear that weapons of any kind are not welcome on the fairgrounds.
"Pocket knives are a no — you don't need one in here. Any kind of firearm whatsoever is no good, no pepper spray, anything like that. No weapons. There are plenty of police officers here, so we don't need weapons on the ground other than ours," Conner said.
Emergency medical services, firefighters and multiple law enforcement agencies will be stationed at the fair throughout its run. If an emergency arises, officials are asking fair goers to locate a staff member immediately.
"Number one, if they can find one of our staff members that have their badges on, ask them — they can radio, we can get someone here within minutes. We have AMR, we have Waco Fire here to help protect customers in case of an emergency like that," Coufal said.
For those who get separated from their group, the fairgrounds feature named streets designed to make it easier to find each other.
"You know, it's kind of fun — Turkey Leg Lane and stuff like that. But we want those street signs so people kind of know where they're at, where they can say, 'Hey, I'm on Turkey Leg Lane, meet me at this food stand,' or 'I'm on this road, come meet me at this attraction.' So we named those streets kind of with a fair-friendly name, but to give people some direction when they're on the grounds," Coufal said.
The full fair schedule is available HERE.
