Granite State Fair continues fight with city over special event permit denials

An overview of the Granite State Fair from last year; left a graphic showing how nonfair revenue dropped off in 2021 (photo/Granite State Fair Facebook; graphic from RAMA.motion filed earlier this YEAR)

ROCHESTER - Greater Rochester residents looking forward to The Granite State Fair that begins on Thursday may want to consider attending a City Hall public hearing on Wednesday where the City of Rochester is expected to continue its six-year battle to demonetize RAMA, the nonprofit that runs the fair, so the city can purchase the 68-acre Fairgrounds property at pennies on the dollar.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting where RAMA will plead to hold three Special Events in the coming months is expected to become heated if the city continues to deny the nonprofit the permits it needs to stay solvent. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in City Council chambers, and Fair representatives are hoping a large crowd will attend to support the fair.
In November the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that the Granite State Fair's board of directors should not be unduly restricted from having fund-raising events at the fairgrounds to help defray the cost of the annual Granite State Fair, but the City of Rochester under City Manager Katie Ambrose and Mayor Paul Callaghan have continued to deny special event permits nonetheless.
The Supreme Court ordered that the case be returned to Strafford Superior Court where the litigation continued this summer.
RAMA, which since 1879 has put on the former Rochester Fair (now Granite State Fair), has been at loggerheads with the city of Rochester since 2018, when they made it abundantly clear they wanted to purchase the Rochester Fairgrounds' for city development.

Attorney Marcia Brown, who is representing RAMA, said that's when they began a practice of denying permits for non-fair events RAMA had been scheduling for decades with the city's blessing.
"Non-fair events are the lifeblood for RAMA," Brown said earlier this year. "Many charities have to deviate from their principal purpose to get income from non-charity events.
"The city had always been open to such events, but after 2018 began to throw more and more red tape at RAMA, effectively demonetizing their nonprofit, because the city had designs on the Rochester Fairgrounds property."
The city of Rochester earlier tried to take away RAMA's nonprofit status, which could've been the death knell for the charity, but in March of 2023 the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that they were, indeed, a charity, and restored their tax-exempt status.
In RAMA's pleadings they note that while the city's contentious relationship with RAMA began in 2018, the financial screws didn't begin in earnest till 2021 when the city began the practice of permit interference, denying events that RAMA had been having for decades.
In the 10 years prior to when the city began its interference in nonfair events, RAMA earned an average of $40,300 annually. From 2022 to 2024, however, a stark contrast, with nonfair income of $0, $1,000 and $0, respectively.
The three events before the ZBA on Wednesday will be for a Christmas Lights show, a Twisted Metal event and a flat track motorcycle race.
A RAMA board member said on Monday these nonfair events are "vital to the survival of the fair."
"We're trying to prevent this land from being developed, and we need other ways of earning money and according to the state we have every right to do so," added the member who asked not to be identified because they are not an officials RAMA spokesman
The board member said there's no reason or logic to the city's strategy except that they want to acquire the Fairgrounds property, and they'll do anything to get their hands on it.
"They just keep denying these events and there's no reason for it," the board member said. "We used to have these events, and they should be grandfathered. We need a lot of people to show up on Wednesday night."