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Graeme Stewart guided the festival into a new era

By News-Sentinel Staff

On July 20, 1992, readers of the Lodi News-Sentinel opened their morning newspapers to read that the Lodi Grape Festival and Harvest Fair would be getting a new leader, although the official change would not take place until 1993.

Greame Stewart, the man who had led the festival for 15 years, had formally annnounced his resignation the day before, however, it would not take effect until Dec. 31, 1992.

Stewart had arrived in Lodi in 1978, following the resignation of Dan Lee as manager of the festival. Stewart had been manager of the El Dorado County Fair in Placerville in 1976, and prior to that had been a livestock manager at the Shasta District Fair in Anderson.

When Stewart was first named manager approximately 27,000 people attended the festival and by the time of his 1992 retirement that number had grown to more than 90,000.

Significant changes that came about during Stewart’s reign as manager included the elimination of the queen and court pageant due to a “lack of interest” among would-be contestants and the public in general.

In 1981, Stewart — who according to a September 1985 News-Sentinel article was a “virtual tea-tottler” — was the driving force behind the founding of the highly successful Spring Wine Show which still draws in thousands of Lodians and visitors along most of the area wineries.

On July 19, 1992, Stewart sat down for an interview with the News-Sentinel. From his Grape Festival office window, Stewart — the third professional secretary-manager to command the Lodi Grape Festival — could see a row of mature, fruit-bearing grapevines that he had helped plant almost 15 years before.

“When I came here there were no grapes (growing on the grounds). I said, ‘Where are the grapes?’ Now we have over 100 vines and 30 varieties, and they’re ripe at fair time.

“We’re the only fair where you can sample the product (fresh from its source)” Stewart said.

Those vines, along with many other festival features, were to be his legacy, Stewart said at the time.

But in that July 1992, the upcoming Sept. 17-20 festival was foremost on his mind. It would be his last as the face and the force behind the four-day event.

“When they hired me, I told them I’d give them 10 years. They got 15,” he said with his trademark grin. “It’s time for me to move on, to hand it over to someone who can keep up with the ‘now’ as I call it. You can’t live in the ‘then.’ this world’s turning too fast.”

Stewart, who would turn 70 in that November 2002, left the festival better off than it was when he arrived, those who worked with him said.

“He’s a very loyal , dedicated and efficient individual,” said Glen Balzer, then president of the Grape Festival’s Board of Directors. “The fair has flourished under his direction.”

during his tenure, attendance at the Lodi Grape Festival and Harvest Fair rose from an average of 50,000 participants to 90,000. He also saw the annual budget grow from $150,000 in 1977 to roughly $535,000 in 1992. And he was proud to say that the festival paid its own way, using its facilities the year round.

The only money received by the festival was $130,000 from the state’s horseracing kitty — a standard amount awarded each of the state’s 81 fairs.

The rest of the Grape Festival’s budget was raised through revenues from the four-day event, other activities like the Lodi Spring Wine Show and Food Faire and rental of facilities to groups like RV enthusiasts.

During his July 1992 interview, Stewart listed his accomplishments as including establishing the Wine Show, building the RV business from zero to more than 100 groups a year, modernizing all the plumbing, electrical works and sewer lines on the grounds, beautification of the grounds and receiving an award as certified fair executive in 1988 by the International Association of Fairs and Expositions.

At the time of his resignation, Bob Smith, of RWS and Associates — the festival’s public relations firm, said Stewart played a big role in getting NASA to exhibit at fairs. The National Aeronautical and Space Administration wanted to get its program to the public but had associated fairs with carnivals. Through a proposal developed by Stewart and Smith, NASA officials agreed to do its first exhibit in 1978 at the Grape Festival, complete with moon rocks, Smith said. It met with such success that now the program is shown internationally at fairs.

Even though it is considered a small fair, the Lodi Grape Festival attracts people from areas like Reno, Redding, the Bay Area and Fresno.

By 1992, Stewart had practiced his role as the festival’s general-manager for 15 years with an unwavering philosophy that the festival must be 100 percent G-rated, family fun. The entertainment was tailored to that belief and all carnival, commercial and art exhibits were void of any nudity.

“It has to be family-oriented,” Stewart said. “And it’s paid off.”

There’s one thing that even the best fair manager can’t control — the weather.

Stewart said the heavy downpour during the fair’s first two days in 1989 made that festival “the worst.”

As for the best, “it’s still to come,” Stewart said more than a decade ago.

Upon Stewart’s announcing his resignation, a seven-member screening committee was set up by the Festival Board of Directors to narrow applicants to the top five or 10, Baltzer told the News-Sentinel in 1992.

“A man of (Stewart’s) caliber is hard to replace. That’s why we will go statewide to try to select the best man (or woman) for the job.”

Smith also had high praise for Stewart. “Graeme has been a voice in the fair industry. He is respected as a manager, a doer and a mover and shaker.”

Stewart’s replacement as general manager would have to be fair-oriented, good with public relations, and fit into the Lodi community, Baltzer said. In July 1992, the board had hoped to have the new person in place by the following Jan. 1.

Stewart’s had not plans that his retirement would spell an end to his association with fairs, something that dated back to 1937 when he was an exhibitor. He said he would keep his hands out of the Grape Festival’s business once he retired, but would so some consulting or temporary work for fairs in other parts of the state.

Additionally, he said, leaving the daily grind of fair management would give him and his wife, Jackie, time to travel and set their own agendas. One of his goals was to write a book about horses — a love of his since the days when he competed in rodeos and equestrian events. Besides fairs Steward had “a complete career in horses and cattle. I ranched for 28 years.”

Then on Nov. 25, 2002, News-Sentinel readers got the news that fair and carnival veteran mark Allen Armstrong, of Upland, had been chosen as Stewart’s replacement.

Since 1989, Armstrong has been manager of Trafton & Associates’ Santa Monica Pier, an amusement park and carnival which sends some of its 50 rides across the state to Catholic churches and highs schools raising money.

Armstrong was oneof 25 applicants interviewed by the Lodi Grape Festival and Harvest Fair Board of Directors.

And for those who would follow him as the festival’s general manager, Stewart had the following advice: “My philosophy of management — it’s nothing more than the accomplishment of a goal through other people.

“Fairs can no longer be the good, old days. They have to become a dyed-in-the-wool-business. The outside has to look like the good, old days but on the inside it has to be business,” he said.