DES MONIES — A cool rain may have kicked off day one of this year’s Iowa State Fair, but that couldn’t stop people behind the scenes who make the famous 10-day event happen.
Wearing a black chef’s tunic embroidered with the red Hy-Vee logo, Lois Telfer carried doughnuts, fresh fruit, plates and napkins in the drizzly conditions to an underground concrete building on the state fairgrounds.
“It’s a beautiful day at the Iowa State Fair,” she said. “And it’s only just begun.”
The Prairie City resident has been in charge of catering for the ISF Grandstand shows since 1986. She works in what the Telfer family affectionately calls “The Bunker” — it’s a little know corner of the fairgrounds located underneath the infield of the racetrack/grandstand.
This is where the road crews and backup bands for acts from Tim McGraw to Meghan Trainor come to eat their breakfast, lunch and dinner on the day of their shows.
Breakfast for day one of the fair is simple — a spread of doughnuts, fresh fruit and assorted dry cereals with an assortment of coffee, milk and juices. Aug. 11, Lois was cooking and serving the Christian rock group Newsboys who had a pretty simple menu. But some stars and their road crews have asked Lois and the Telfer team for food that is bit more complex to cook.
This was Lois’ 30th fair catering with Pleasant Hill Hy-Vee for the grandstand stars. She has to take into account special dietary needs of the performers and their crews. On the riders provided by Triangle Talent for this year’s grandstand acts there were vegetarians, vegans and pescetarians.
Some performers want soy milk, and there was a request for vegan black bean burgers. Lois has to track all the stars’ food allergies.
The mood in the bunker might be lighthearted, but Lois admits it’s a big responsibility. She is careful to maintain privacy for all the celebrities and will never reveal which stars request the most outlandish dish outside her catering circle. But Lois said one person this year has seven different food allergies, including a reaction to nuts, of which she must be mindful.
Before she sets up for breakfast on the first day, Lois always tapes the newspaper insert showing a calender with photographs of grandstand acts. They serve as a reference so Lois knows who she’s cooking for, and as a keepsake. Lois has 23 years of ISF entertainment flyers she’s saved dating back to 1993.
Lois loves that catering the ISF has always been a family project.
Daughter-in-law Ava Telfer and her 17-year-old son Leevi arrived at the Pleasant Hill Hy-Vee at 7:15 a.m. to prep for the first day. They climbed into the catering van to drive to the fairgrounds, Leevi sitting on the floor in the back and grinned as he said, “this is my childhood.”
Ava has been part of the food crew officially for 20 years but began helping when she and now-husband Darrin were first dating. She’s in charge of replenishing the snacks and refreshments in dressing rooms, trailers and buses.
Ava said she’s had a few crazy requests from stars in their concert riders. From warm, homemade muffins to a crystal bowl holding one color of M&M, she said she’s seen it all. But Ava and the Telfers quickly learned that most of the performers are just normal people with an abnormal job.
“The first couple of years you feel starstruck but you quickly realize they’re humans like everybody else,” she said.
But Ava makes an exception for country singer George Straight.
“He is literally the only one I’ve been starstruck with. There’s just something about him. Darrin knows. It’s very public,” she said.
Darrin Telfer serves the acts on the free stages. He started catering the fairgrounds with his mother Lois in high school but first worked the fair at the Campbell’s Corn Dog stand at 15 years old.
He remembers as a teen pulling kids out of the crowd during a New Kids on the Block grandstand concert who had fainted due to heat exhaustion, hosing them down with cool water and getting them to EMS on standby.
In Lois’ early days, she would cook things like made-to-order eggs on two griddles in the bunker. She said it was a challenge to cook for 75 to 80 people right on site. Now all the food is made at the ISF’s Youth Inn by Hy-Vee kitchen staff.
This year Darrin and Ava’s daughter — Lois’ granddaughter — Grace Telfer was in the kitchen with other Hy-Vee cooks. It really is a Telfer family affair.
The Telfers meet about 85 to 90 percent of the acts that play the grandstand.
“For the individual performers it depends on their situations. Some of them have threats against them and live a completely different life than what you see,” Ava said.
When she was 16, Lois’ granddaughter Kelsey Townsend worked an entire day in wardrobe for Def Leppard. She had to steam their costumes and spritzed the band’s wardrobe with vodka at the request of the rockers.
Now in college, Townsend has been helping her grandmother cater the shows for several years.
One person who’s been through it all with Lois is Pete Lampe of Waverly. He’s been doing gate security at the grandstand for 32 years.
She may get a bit giddy about the time Vince Gill put his arm around her, but forget the celebrities and musicians. Lois’ long-time friend is who makes her starstruck.
Pete came to the bunker to say hello and give Lois a hug Aug. 11. She told Lampe that her 30th year at the fair might be her last, but with two more years of experience on Lois, the 6 foot, 7 inch security guard reminded Lois she still has some time.
“You’re just a rookie,” Lampe said with a smile.
It might be possible to convince Lois to stick around for another round of concerts.
“As long at I have my kids and grandkids with me,” she said. “And if I’m alive and kicking.”
Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@myprairiecitynews.com