Tiffin welcomes country singer, songwriter

Country singer and songwriter Lauren Alania graced Seneca County with a performance at the 181st Seneca County Fair Wednesday night. Alania has been active since 2013 at 19 years old. She co-wrote 14 of her new album's 15 songs, much of it inspired by recent life experiences including two impactful break-ups, the loss of her stepfather, and like much of the world, Lauren struggled with despondency as she adapted to life in the pandemic, the A-T previously reported. She performed Wednesday evening with singer Josh Melton as the opening performance. Seneca County Fair Events Coordinator Rod Daniel spoke with the A-T about getting Alania as the Seneca County 2023 Fair headliner and how the board came up with the idea to start having concerts. This year's concert makes the second year the fair has had a concert. Last year, Granger Smith performed. "It's a process we started last year when we had our first concert here," Daniel told the A-T. "We look around and see what type of expense we can take on, make it reasonable for people in our area to come and enjoy a big-name country artist. "We go to a convention every year in January, and we work with Variety Attractions who handles everything behind the scenes," he continued. "Once we get a contract put together, then they send it off to us and we make adjustments. As soon as both parties agree, we start the planning process." As for the stage and sound setup, the fair board contracts with companies out of Ohio. This year, the board worked with companies from Fremont and Vermilion. "We supply stagehands to load in and load out," he said. When it comes to the beginning of concerts at the Seneca County Fair, Daniel said the idea was something the board had been discussing for a while. "I've been involved in the fair since I was a kid. You see some of these other county fairs (that have big concerts) and we thought 'Why not us? Let's try it.' Finally, as a board, we decided to give it a go. We had a great show last year with Granger so it's something we've started so we wanted to keep it going." "Everybody thinks of the fair as when the community comes together and everyone comes out whether it's for the livestock, the projects or the food. To have one of the top female country artists in our community, I think it's great for people to come see her."