Lewisburg, West Virginia — Families travel to Fairlea every year to attend the West Virginia State Fair.
Generations of Mountaineers have shared ordinary yet extraordinary life experiences at the fairgrounds, such as first carousel rides and first dates.
Greg Miller, the owner of Lewisburg-based Miller Food Concessions, attends the fair every year with his own “recipe for magic.”
“I’ve been in the food business for around 30 years. “I know my youth doesn’t show it, but I have 30 or so years,” Miller joked in April. “We travel across the eastern United States. We are based in Lewisburg. We spend the winter working in Florida, and the summer attending festivals and fairs in West Virginia.
Those who grew up going to the State Fair will recognize Miller’s colorful trailers, which he claims he designs and paints.
Miller and his team sell traditional fair food such as corndogs and authentic soft-serve ice cream, which he takes pride in.
“I’m more into the fun stuff,” he said, adding that he sells traditional festival fare.
Miller said his interest in business began when he visited the State Fair as a child with his parents, who sold John Deere equipment and chainsaws.
Miller said his mother encouraged him to sell John Deere toys at a booth at the State Fair, and he eventually saved enough money to buy his first car.
“I have a deep love, and I’ll get emotional, for The State Fair of West Virginia,” said Miller, who met his wife there 46 years ago. “It is where, as child, it would come to town for the 10, nine days at the time, and it would be so depressing and lonely after it left.”
Miller shifted his business focus to food in 1992, and he says he sees both new and familiar faces at the West Virginia State Fair every year.
“It is a homecoming for us to go back, see the people we see once a year, twice a year,” he told me. “When we were in the John Deere farming business, we had a lot of customers from nearby businesses. So we see those guys, and they still visit us once a year.”
Miller’s trailers will be on display at the 100th West Virginia State Fair in Fairlea.
