East Side Night Brings Friends Back Together

[Hayley Schaefer] On the first Friday night of the fair, there is an unofficial tradition that you may or may not know about. East Side Night. And I only have one question. What's the East Side?

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So I have one question to start. What is the East Side?

[Luann Halter] The East Side is a great group of people that, when you grow up with them, you will be friends with them forever.

[Hayley] What makes someone a true East Sider?

[Kent Balduchi] Well, you have to have a zip code that ends in 17 or a phone number that starts in 26. That's a requirement.

[Chris Schmitz] Everybody's real. They're not fake.

[Jeremy Jones] Honestly, like, we're a diverse group. What makes an East Sider? You grew up on the East Side.

[Hayley] How East Side are you?

[Jason Lampman] I mean, my dad lives a couple blocks away from the fair. I mean, I went to the elementary school that's right outside the fair. So I'd like to think I'm a little bit East Side, you know?

[Hayley] Okay. So this is my first time at the fair on a Friday. So what can you tell me about East Side Night?

[Candace Kitzmann] It's big. Really big. Every year that ever graduated from East High shows up.

[Hayley] All right, so tell me, what is East Side Night?

[Michelle McGriff] It's all about the East Side.

[Lisa Hopkins] Tradition.

[Michelle] Yes. 100% tradition. See?

[Lisa] Seeing old friends.

[Michelle] Yep. It is a class reunion for everybody that went to East High School.

[Kent] It's East Side Christmas. I look forward to this all year long.

[Hayley] So what is East Side Christmas?

[Kent] East Side Christmas is. It is an all class reunion for people that grew up on the East Side, went to school at East. This is the one time that they show up, and it is truly a big reunion.

[Hayley] What have you done on East Side Nights past?

[Heather Seward] So I kind of have a routine. Go to Main Gate or Toads always, because they're the closest bars, and I always see my friends there. And then we always hit up the Bud Tent because you can always count on seeing East Siders there.

[Hayley] Can you tell me a little bit of the history of East Side Night?

[Luann] The Bud Tent started from what I remember the guy that owned it came back from the service and he opened the bud tent, and he was from around this area. It just started as kind of an informal thing. Like a few people decided to come and meet, you know, at the fair and go to the Bud Tent, and it just grew from there.

And now you have generation after generation, and it just keeps going and hopefully we'll live on forever.

[Hayley] What does it mean to have a special night at the fair?

[Michelle] It feels great because we were born and raised on the East Side, and fair's on the East Side, so why not have East Side Night?

[Kenna Dixson] We used to meet at the Bud Tent. Now it's the Depot. Every time you turn, you see someone you know.

[Jason] Everybody, like, they have pride from where they're from. You like to kind of claim it, and, I don't know, just... it's nice to be able to claim something.

[Hayley] So it is the first Friday night of the fair. It is East Side Night, but most importantly, it's all about just getting out, having fun with your friends, your family, and enjoying a beautiful night together.