Building Hay Days: Inside the World's Largest Snowmobile Event

Welcome back, everyone. Season 2, and yet again we are right here, back at Hay Days. We just pulled in today. It's Thursday. We've got most of our stuff set up. It's a little bit of a mess, but that's all on that side of the camera, so you don't have to see that. We have a fun podcast lined up here with Meshell today, and we're going to get to know Meshell a little bit more.

I was genuinely curious about what it takes to put on an event like Hay Days. We go to a lot of events every year, and this is obviously the biggest one. So I asked, who could I sit down and chat with and learn more about Hay Days, the event? And everyone told me it was you. You're the one I need to talk to.

So, Meshell, we're here at Hay Days shooting this podcast. When we publish this, there are going to be a lot of people scanning through social media or YouTube, and they're going to see the thumbnail and the title of this podcast. What is one thing you can say to that person, knowing what we're going to be talking about, that's going to get them to stop swiping and tune into this episode?

Well, if you own a snowmobile, if you own an ATV, if you own anything motorsports, this is the place. We are the world's largest of its kind. You can't go to any other event and get what you're going to find here. We have mud racing, we have the expo, we have drags, we have vendors, we have sponsors, we have the swappers. It's amazing. And if you love all that, you should be here.

Yeah. And in this episode, we're going to pick your brain on how you guys make all that magic happen. So that's what's pretty cool about what we're going to talk about today.

I'm going to turn the time over to you for just a quick second. Introduce yourself to us. What's your role here at Hay Days, and how long have you been in that role?

Yeah. Again, I'm Meshell. I've been in the club for 36 years, been president four times, and I'm current president this year. My role with the event, I love it. I've been working it since I was 15, 16 years old, and I joined the club at 18.

Really, I help manage and facilitate the upfront logistics parts of Hay Days. Where your site is, where your flags are, vendor to vendor, lining up all the sponsors and all of that, and just making sure everything else flows. Safety, making sure when people walk that the road is safe and things aren't in the way. But mostly that they enjoy themselves and have a great time here. That's what I look forward to every year, just making sure that happens.

Great. So, the history of Hay Days. We were just talking, and Hay Days is your age, right?

Yeah. Hay Days started the year I was born.

The year you were born. That is awesome.

Well, I was born in July, but Hay Days started in September.

Pretty much the same, right? So, 57 years. How did it start? I know there's some information out there on the internet we could go and search for, but maybe just tell us in your own words how it started.

Well, a couple guys wanted to start a snowmobile club. They started in 1966. From there they said, let's do something special, let's do something different. They used to love going out in the backyard and seeing who's faster and all that. So they decided, you know what, let's go somewhere. The first one was at the Golden T, which is now the Majestic Oaks, and we moved a couple times from there.

Where is that in proximity to where we're at right now?

Not far from Coon Rapids, the Blaine area. Fridley, St. Francis. I would say probably about an hour away from our current location here.

And they just decided they wanted to do something. The name Hay Days came from them throwing hay on the ground and racing on that, because they didn't want to wreck the grass or anything else that was there. So that was kind of cool, and that's how the event name of Hay Days came about. It was probably only five or six members that started it off, and every year it got bigger and bigger, and as a club we just started rolling with it.

So that first group of Hay Days founding members, where are they at? Are they still around, or have they all passed on since?

They've all passed, yeah.

And are they family, friends?

A lot of the club is made up of family and friends, and families are the biggest part of how it got to where it is today. Now we have a lot more friends coming in, because we need it. It's a big club and it's a lot to do. But it all started with family and friends.

Love it. So when you guys moved to these grounds here, how long ago was that?

We moved here in 2009, so our first event here was 2010. Right after the 2009 event, we packed up everything, we left, and we came out here.

So, size difference. Old grounds versus new grounds. What's the size difference?

Actually, not much.

Really?

Yeah, it's just laid out a lot different. For the first couple of races, everything was on one side of the racetrack, and then we expanded. We had the expo, we did a bigger swap, more vendors, and we expanded to the other side of the track. So it grew. But the location we were at was rented. We rented that property. The Sno Barons own this property.

How we laid it out here is a lot different. We utilize more of one side than the other. So when you come out here, you'll see the racers are on one side of the track, and everything else is on the north side of the track.

Awesome. Okay, we've talked about how it started, where it started and who it started with. Let's talk more specifically about the grounds. I think it was last year, maybe it was you guys at Hay Days, that posted a video of the transformation of the grounds. I feel like there was some grass cutting or something, and then it transitioned to how it looks when we first get here. I'm genuinely curious, what does that transformation take?

It's months and months of cutting, starting when the grass starts growing. We have a great land team that does all of our development as far as mowing, fixing anything that needs to be done. But it's basically fields. The swap fields that are out there, we hay them. There are three of them. We have a farmer who comes in and bales the hay and takes the first crop, and after that it's every weekend of mowing. It's usually every Friday and Saturday, and it's about 8 hours of mowing.

Every Friday and Saturday. And what's the total size of this property, roughly?

We have about 140 acres, but we use about 120. There's a small chunk on the other side of 95 that we don't use. There's a big ditch in it, so we don't utilize that.

And the Sno Barons own the grounds. Was that part of the decision to move from the old location to the new one, that you could be on something you owned?

I think it's been a dream for a lot of the members for a long time to own property. There are a lot of logistics when you do that with a club, but we made it work, and we did it for the event. We want to keep it going for everybody who enjoys it.

To do that, we were outgrowing the location we were at. It was down a back road, not off a main road like we are now on 95. So it backed up a lot of the township and community roads getting in.

Probably a burden during that time.

But it's fun. Have you ever been on the swap road when swap comes in? If you're stuck in that traffic, it ain't fun, I'll tell you that right now. But to look at, it is something to look at. There are swappers across the road right now, because they want to be the first ones in.

So just so you guys know, it is 7:35 p.m. and they can't get in until tomorrow morning. So they're going to camp out in a line and wait until they can come in and get picked, right?

They can't wait on the road, so they actually drive around and find places to park.

Wild. This place is wild.

In your front yard, I wouldn't be surprised. They're everywhere. But the swap lane is actually a party before the party. They love it.

For sure. So we're always here in September. What does winter look like here? We're from the West, from Idaho, and we've never been out here in the wintertime. If I was here in February, what's happening?

Nothing. Nothing's happening here in February. Just snow.

You guys have a lot of land here. Are you riding out here? Do you set anything up to play, or is it just a field?

We don't really do much on the property. Our CUP, our conditional use permit, only allows us to have one weekend, and we keep asking the county to let us do more things. We want to. If the Boy Scouts want to come out, if anybody wants to come out for anything, we're open to anything. We hope that they allow us.

Wait, wait, wait. You said something I want to noodle on. How come you only have one weekend of playtime out here when you guys own the property? Explain.

Feel free to call Sherburne County.

Sounds like this is a touchy subject.

It is kind of. I don't know why. If you look at their website, they promote events and things like that coming to the community. But I think sometimes snowmobilers and ATVs get a bad rap in certain things, and some people in the county and the township think that, even though we've been out here for, what, 16 years now, or 14 years. It is a touchy subject. We wish we could do more, but they only allow us to do one event.

You have to get a conditional use permit, and it's almost like 4 years of giving them all the information to be able to do this.

But if you wanted to come out here and just ride your snowmobile around?

We can come out and use our property, just not as an official event. But most of us aren't from around here. A lot of us live in Coon Rapids, Fridley, kind of where the old area was. There aren't many of us who live in this area.

See, I just assumed you guys were all neighbors out here, all around the property.

No. No neighbors.

Okay, so in the wintertime it's snow. Last winter was probably not a good winter to measure things off of, but generally speaking, a few feet of snow here in the wintertime?

On the property, yeah. We usually get really good snowfall around here. But last year, not so good.

Yeah, it's a bummer. I had many conversations with people who said most of the trail system basically didn't even open up out here last winter. So what we're hoping, fingers crossed, is that there's a lot of built-up excitement for snow, because a lot of people had a lack of it, and they're all going to show up here in 2 days.

Yeah, well, we're the official start of winter.

Official start of winter. And today I've got a sweatshirt on. It's a little bit chilly tonight.

Which is good. It's good shopping weather. People love coming to Hay Days when it's like 75, 76.

And that's exactly what the weatherman is calling.

Love it. Try on your new sled, try on your new snowmobile suit, try on anything. People want to shop when it's cold.

Okay, so everyone leaves. It's a mass exodus Sunday evening. What happens after the event here? A lot of cleanup, I imagine.

A lot of cleanup, and a little fun. We have a little shenanigans going on.

Shenanigans? What is considered a Hay Days shenanigan?

We've got to have some fun. Shenanigans, let's see.

I'm sure a lot of the stress is just, ah, we did it. Okay, time to relax.

It's our time. Sunday is kind of our club's time to go shopping and do things. It's kind of a quieter day. Obviously Saturday is crazy, it's just sick out here. But Sunday is fun. We'll do golf cart races, things like that. Privately. Nobody knows.

Hey, how come we're not doing that on Thursday? Or do you have to show up on Wednesday for that?

Everybody would join in, and they'd shut us down. We've got the mud over there. We like to maybe take things in there. Hopefully not get stuck, but some do.

Where are the videos of this? Are there no phones allowed after the show because of what's going on?

Well, walk through swap with your phone and you might see something you don't want to. That's a jungle out there. Head on over to swap. They're having a great time.

Awesome. Okay, so we talked a little bit about the grounds and how this place transforms into Hay Days and then out of Hay Days. What does it take to put on the event? I've done a little bit of event planning, and we go to a lot of shows as a vendor, but we're not putting on the event. Way different. So when does planning start? After the event's over, maybe you have a few meetings, what went well, what didn't. Then a break, I assume. When do you start flipping the switch back on?

Probably mid-February, because budgets go through in March. We have to work up all of our numbers and everything for next year. And then in March we're off and running. As soon as the budgets are approved, we're going. We're planning everything.

So what does that look like? Are you sitting down and meeting together? Is it online meetings?

We have an event committee of anywhere between eight and 10 people. We meet every Tuesday from 7:00 to 10:00 at night, from March on. Sometimes we have on-site meetings and come out here. We meet with vendors, we meet with sponsors, we meet with the dirt people, the track people, everybody, to pull it all together and make it happen. A lot of hours.

That's a lot of work. I'm not surprised, but being consistent like that every week from March on. Awesome.

Did you say how many people are on staff? Does it fluctuate?

Well, the club itself, the Sno Barons, has about 140 members.

Is it, hey, if you're a member, you're required to help or participate in the event in some way?

Yeah. This is all we do. All we do is put on Hay Days. We don't maintain trails like a lot of the clubs do, and we're very thankful for them. I think a lot of clubs out there today are struggling with the age of their members and trying to get new members in. So get out there, be a part of your local snowmobile club, help them out and maintain, so we can all still use the trails and do what we love to do.

Our club is getting older. We're older. But we do have mandates on what you've got to work, because this just doesn't happen with two people.

That's a good point. Out West where we're at, it seems like clubs aren't as big a part of the season as they are here and even on the East Coast. And when you said getting the younger generation in to help, have you had conversations around that? What are you doing? Are your own kids filling in for you guys? Eventually you're probably going to have to expand.

Well, back when we joined the club, there were probably about seven couples who joined. We had kids and all that, but I think the stress on us back then was a little different than the stress on young people today, with kids and everything else going on. But we were 100% in.

My kids were raised at Hay Days. That's where they learned to drive. We had to put up our fence, and they were driving the truck at age six and seven, pulling a trailer while we put the stakes in. Nowadays I keep saying I'm at that age where I wish we had seven more couples come in and help, but we don't. And I think a lot of clubs are struggling with that.

Both my kids are in the club, and a lot of the members' children are in the club, growing. But the dedication is a little bit different. It's not that we fault them for not doing as much as we did back then. I think life in general is just different, and it's hard to get young people involved in things today because life is so crazy.

But being a part of a club is amazing. It has its pros and cons, but the friendships you build. We are always looking for new members who want to come out. But this is what we do, and we need them to understand that you have to work. We're not a club you join to plan your next snowmobile trip, we're all going snowmobiling this weekend, whatever. We're the club that puts Hay Days on.

That is operation, goal number one.

Yep. You have to be able to dedicate. It's 4, 12, 12, 4. You have to do 4 hours on the Wednesday before the event, which was yesterday, 12 hours on Saturday, 12 on Sunday, and then 4 on Monday. That doesn't happen as much anymore, because again, we're all getting older, but it does take a lot of hours and a lot of people to get it done.

So there are 140 members in the club, and some of them are older. I don't want to say old, but older than me and you, in their 70s and 80s, and you'll find them in our information booth. We still utilize them, because they're great assets. They've got the knowledge, all that good stuff.

Other than that, we have about 400 people from around 13 different contract clubs, snowmobile clubs throughout Minnesota and some from Wisconsin, who come out and help us put on Hay Days. We pay them to do that, and that's where they get their funding for the trails you ride on. It's something they want to do for their club. It's a great working partnership, and frankly we couldn't do it without them. We appreciate them 100%.

Yeah, it sounds like a pretty solid win-win right there.

Okay. What are some interesting things, some fun facts you can share about putting on this event, that most of us don't really know?

Oh, fun facts. You already learned about the golf cart races.

Golf cart races and mudding. Okay, but what are some other things? You were sharing a few things about some of the costs. We have no idea what it costs just to do some things here.

Yeah, to put on an event of this magnitude, it costs a lot of money. Take trash and garbage. Just the trash we take care of from the swappers and everybody on the grounds is like $40,000.

That's wild. I don't think anyone would even be close to that ballpark if they had to guess. Just in trash alone, write that check, 40 grand right there.

Right. And that's one piece of the big pie. There are a lot of checks like that going out. Again, we're a volunteer club. The Sno Barons don't get paid to put on the event. We do it because we love it. But if we didn't do it, we wouldn't be able to give back to the clubs and everything else that we do. So enjoy it.

Any other interesting facts about the event?

Oh. I think everything about it is interesting, so I'd probably say something you might think is not interesting.

I have a question for you that I didn't even put on the list. Maybe you can answer it, maybe you can't. What is the craziest thing that has happened here? That is not going to get anyone in trouble with the law.

Well, I'm sure law enforcement may have been involved. There was a little hammerschlagen going on in swap. A couple fingers were missing.

Ooh. Yikes. How long ago was that?

It wasn't me, but they do come back. They still come back. That was probably about 4 years ago. Let's see, another fun thing. There are some things I just can't say. They'd get me in trouble.

Bummer. Maybe for another day. We're just warming you up on this podcast. Next year maybe we'll get the inside goodies.

We'll have to go out at night.

We'll just do a nighttime run.

I'll bring you to all the places you shouldn't go.

Okay. That'll be fun.

All right. We're pretty much out of light, so it's getting dark, and we're down to our lightning round. In this segment we ask every guest the same questions. The first one: you've got a brand new sled. What are the three things you're going to do to that sled to make it yours? And you only get three. But not a wrap. Wraps don't count, because we all know you're going to choose Deviant Ink.

There are some pretty cool ones sitting out here. Pretty shiny. I'd say skis. I don't like the plain black skis. I know some people do, but I like a good ski with a nice color.

The seat is important to me. Height is important to me. Even if it's new, if the seat is stock and I can switch it out, I would, or get it embroidered or something.

And another geeky thing is I do like the mirrors. Maybe it's my age, but I do like the mirrors.

Mirrors are nice. Hey, then you don't have to turn around.

Reverse is good. Make sure you have reverse. I'm older. I like reverse. If my back's going out, I can't be tossing that machine around.

Okay, so we've got skis, seats, mirrors and reverse.

Important to me.

Important to you. That's what it's all about.

Now, here's the last question. We hinted at it a little earlier, but what's one thing most of us do not know about Hay Days?

Most of us don't know that it's owned by one club. We put on one event. We're all volunteers, and we talked a little bit about that. There are a lot of things. I don't know how to pick out one thing.

Well, you already hinted at it. I didn't know about the volunteer side.

Yep, it's all volunteer work. We get a Christmas party.

Oh, there you go. Get the Christmas party.

And a candle, maybe.

There you go. Fun stuff. So we've got a big day tomorrow, one more day of prep, and then let the show begin.

Oh, it's going to be great.

Hopefully we all make it out alive and everyone shows up.

Oh, they're going to show up. You know the Cboys are coming.

I've heard. They've been here the last couple years, right? Or did they not come last year?

They're giving away a car.

A car? Wow.

We had to move them because their spot gets overcrowded. It's up front. We've got a lot of new things this year, too. You've got to come out and see it.

Cool. And we'll be sharing stuff. This will go live after the event's over. Meshell, I appreciate you taking the time. You're busy. This is the one weekend you guys work here, right? So I appreciate the time and you sharing a bit more about how Hay Days works and how you guys make the magic happen.

Yeah. Thank you very much.

All right, thank you.