Last Friday night, on the 18th, the Osceola fair ended up shutting down early after a wild, chaotic crowd started a fight. The fair itself had reached the maximum capacity of 13,000 people, and the decision to close everything was made after consulting with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office and some board members.

Fair administrator, Larry Berry, said it all started when “Some of the kids inside got word the box offices were closed, their friends were not coming in, and they decided to be unruly,” he said. “It was a different crowd yesterday, it was families, it was adults coming out and having a good time with their families, where Friday night with the students it was a totally different crowd.”

Joseph McAvey, a witness, recorded a video of the fight that occurred that night. His video showed crowds of teenagers running from the area before a group of them clashed with Osceola County deputies. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before. When they came back around, it was just mayhem because the cops weren’t expecting it. So that girl came out of nowhere, put her hair up, and just got tackled by the police,” McAvey said.

“We had some unruly teenagers that decided to cause a ruckus,” said Berry. “They were yelling ‘fight’ before the fight even started, so they basically caused the problems that we had.”

The Sheriff’s Office says they identified one juvenile on Friday and detained her, later releasing her to her father. The state attorney’s office is still investigating Friday’s incident. So far, that teenage girl isn’t being charged, even though deputies called her the main aggressor in the fight. The fair board will vote on any changes coming within the next couple months. February 20th was the fair’s last day, and visitors said that they would keep an eye out for trouble.

“I’m glad it was contained,” said visitor Anthony Morris. “I didn’t hear about anyone getting hurt. But the kids will stay closer to daddy today than they normally would!”

Fair officials say they’ve taken steps to make sure the fair is safe for the future, by reducing the number of people who can enter to 9,000 and bringing on more deputies than previous ones. Administrators say some other fairs only admit people under 18 with a parent or guardian, such as the Central Florida Fair, which has had a policy like that in place for years. On weekends, those under 17 need a guardian over 21, with a limit of four minors to an adult. Officials say they won’t rule out that being a possibility for the Osceola Fair in the future.

“Do we need to require adults to be with teenagers to they come to the fairgrounds? Parental guardian supervision. These are all things we’re looking at,” Berry said. “Our main thing is we want to look at everything to make sure this is the safest possible. We are considering whatever it takes to keep safety top of mind.”