Drone and multirotor racing join Fisher Fair anniversary celebration

Fisher Fair has woven drone and multirotor racing into its 85th-anniversary celebration in Fisher, Illinois, a weeklong run that also marks the village’s 150-year milestone. The schedule moves from a rodeo on July 8 to ITPA truck-and-tractor pulls on July 9, with a Friday night concert behind the grandstands on July 10 and a demolition derby on July 11.

That placement matters because the fair is not treating drone racing like a side show. It is being slotted alongside the loudest, most visible fairground attractions, which gives FPV racing a chance to reach people who came for the pulls or the derby and ended up watching aircraft thread a course instead of tires tear up dirt. The Fisher Fair 5K Run/Walk is set for July 11 at 7:30 a.m., beginning on First Street and finishing with awards in Glades Hall, and family events such as a mutt show help turn the week into a full festival rather than a single-night program.

Drone racing fits that environment because it is easy to understand at first glance. Pilots fly small radio-controlled aircraft in first-person view through obstacle courses as quickly as possible, and the live video feed makes the action readable even for a casual crowd standing at the rail. MultiGP, which calls itself the largest drone racing league and FPV community in the world, says it has hundreds of chapters in the United States and abroad and more than 30,000 registered pilots, a sign that the sport already has a sizable grassroots base even if it still lives outside mainstream motorsports.

The regulatory backdrop is just as important. The Federal Aviation Administration requires recreational flyers to follow safety guidelines from FAA-recognized community-based organizations, and recreational pilots must complete TRUST and carry proof of completion while flying. Advisory Circular 91-57D, issued June 24, 2025, covers recreational operations, recognition of community-based organizations, fixed flying sites and sanctioned events, which is the framework that helps explain why drone racing can show up at a fairground in the first place.

Fisher Fair has long leaned on repeatable live spectacle. A 2020 lineup already included a queen pageant, tractor and truck pulls, horse show, livestock shows, a car show, demolition derby and 5K walk. Adding drone and multirotor racing to that mix shows how the fair is updating its bill without abandoning the old formula: put speed, noise and competition in front of a crowd, then let the next generation decide what they came to watch.