DECATUR, Ill. – The grandstands sat empty on what should have been the Macon County Fair's opening night. Instead of a stage with pageant contestants, the central Illinois arena held only 20 truck loads of dirt spread out for a makeshift go-cart track. The 158-year-old fair is broke.

Organizers canceled the event in favor of a scaled-down festival this year as the board struggled to pay about $300,000 of debt. The fair's demise in the county about 180 miles south of Chicago shows the vulnerability of a pastoral institution. The number of U.S. farms has dropped six straight years, and with them demand for entertainments that convened growers who spend much of the year in their fields.

With state budgets under pressure and industrial agriculture helping to drain the countryside's population, urban legislators face tough choices. Illinois cut support for county fairs by 38 percent as attendance fell by almost a third from 2000 to 2013.

"They're all a-hurtin' because the money isn't there like it used to be," Don Collins said as he walked through the Macon County fairgrounds. The 82-year-old retiree volunteers on the grounds, doing everything from mowing the lawn to fixing pipes.

More support for state fairs

Illinois isn't an outlier, said Paul Lasley, an Iowa State University sociologist who has studied rural communities for 33 years. Declining rural populations have created more urbanized states, taking a toll on fairs, he said.

State fairs have traditionally had more support, said Lasley. They can afford to draw big entertainment like Aretha Franklin at the Minnesota State Fair and rapper Pitbull at the New York State Fair this year.

At the county level, however, Illinois' struggles are replicated across the nation, said Dominic Vivona Jr., a controller at Amusements of America, a carnival operator based in Florence, S.C., that serves 30 to 40 fairs a year.

"It's definitely not atypical," said Vivona, 46, whose family started the traveling amusement park in the 1930s. "It's a common occurrence throughout the country."

Illinois fairs have been dealt a double blow, thanks to deteriorating state finances. Lawmakers passed a budget May 31 with a $2 billion hole. Illinois has $100 billion of unpaid benefit obligations.

Funding for Illinois's 104 county fairs fell to $5.07 million last year from $8.16 million in 2000, said Jeff Squibb, spokesman for the state Agriculture Department. Even at the Macon County fairgrounds, some saw the logic.

"I don't think our state should try and support anything right now because of our financial situation," fairgoer Jeanie Burtschi said. "It's not that I don't believe in these kind of things. It's just that Illinois is in such bad shape."

Bingo brings in revenue

The fair's main income source is bingo, four nights a week on the grounds. Borrowing to make repairs on the 50-acre facility and "overspending in other areas" led to its debt, said Teresa Wilson, 41, who is board treasurer.

Now, the fair's ceiling is caving in — literally. A massive water leak in the office the day before the start of the festival collapsed it, Wilson said.

The festival started this year in a shrunken version with $1-a-ride carnival. Barns usually full of animal entries were vacant.

There were no livestock competitions or harness races, and the marquee tractor pull was replaced by go-cart racing.

Organizers asked for donated portable toilets since they still owe the sewage company for last year's rentals.