{"id":20168,"date":"2025-10-25T12:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T12:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/20168\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T12:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T12:08:10","slug":"florida-gateway-fair-raises-prices-attendees-express-mixed-reactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/20168\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Gateway Fair raises prices, attendees express mixed reactions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LAKE CITY, Fla. (WCJB) &#8211; The Florida Gateway Fair is in its 71st year, and while everyone is excited to ride rides like the bumper cars, some people are upset by the price increase, while others say it\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI think it\u2019s really still a reasonable price to pay, and you get to be with your family and your friends,\u201d shared Wellborn resident Debbie Horner. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Horner says she\u2019s been coming to this fair for the past four years, and expected prices to rise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI know that it went up, and it goes up like every year, but overall it\u2019s worth it,\u201d Horner said. \u201cAll of the free things you get to do, like going to the businesses and getting all these free items and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">However, some people TV20 talked to off-camera say they were sticker-shocked to learn it\u2019s $12 to get in and $30 for a wristband to ride the rides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s just a great thing to do,\u201d shared attendee Isabelle Lang.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Lang attended with her family and loves the fair atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI like to see my friends sometimes, and I also love to like ride the rides, especially to do the bumpers and hit my friends too,\u201d Lang said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-start article-text\">But of course, there can\u2019t be fun without policies. Last year,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcjb.com\/2024\/11\/01\/florida-gateway-fair-implements-new-bag-attendance-policies\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wcjb.com\/2024\/11\/01\/florida-gateway-fair-implements-new-bag-attendance-policies\/\"> new security policies were implemented<\/a> after a fight broke out on the fairgrounds, and they are still in effect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This includes only bringing in a clear bag or small clutch, and anyone under 18 is required to be accompanied by an adult 21 or older. Each adult can also only chaperone four minors at a time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI like to hang with people who are like my family to me, and I like to get on rides I haven\u2019t been on since I was a teenager,\u201d shared Wellborn resident Andy Hodges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">So if you do want to pay the price increase, the fair, of course, has rides, games, livestock shows, and fun for the whole family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The fair runs through Nov. 2. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-start article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcjb.com\/newsletter\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to subscribe to our newsletter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WCJB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKE CITY, Fla. (WCJB) &#8211; The Florida Gateway Fair is in its 71st year, and while everyone is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16294,16293,16290,16295,763,7904,28,16287,30,29,16296,16288,12024,16297,4863,15624,11566,16289,16291,1184,16292],"class_list":["post-20168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-adults","tag-bag","tag-bumper-cars","tag-chaperone","tag-columbia-county","tag-fair","tag-florida","tag-florida-gateway-fair","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-games","tag-increase","tag-lake-city","tag-livestock","tag-minors","tag-policies","tag-prices","tag-rides","tag-rise","tag-security","tag-wristband"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}