Hello fintuckyfarms,
Well if it were me I would want/need to know what type of budget I was working with. Without that, there is just no way to know if you will be able to cover all your bases and have the funds to complete it, as well as maintain the plants and systems you plan. If you forget about something, or try to cut spending later because you don't have any more money to work with, and the plants suffer, it wont be a good display and turn people off from trying it themselves. After all, if a grower that knows what they are doing cant get it right, they will feel it isn't worth trying.
From your reply I'm guessing that the fair isn't planing to fund anything, leaving you to fund it yourself. That poses two options, how much money are you willing to spend on your own dime, and/or if you will be able to somehow make any money off of the deal (to at least recoup your upfront expenses). If you can work some things out with sponsors, that's great. But I would recommend to get all the pledged money before you begin to buy and build anything, and don't get too commercialized, or that will turn people off from your display as well.
Setting it up and growing it in place before the fair starts has the advantage not needing to make it mobile. But on the other hand the fair may not have that space rented (thus not able to be used) before that time period. And unless security is provided, you may have people vandalize your setup. But making it mobile poses problems as well. Things like zuchinni, sugar peas, pumpkins and tomatoes are all vine crops to the best of my knowledge, and that will make it very difficult to move them to the location. The hydro systems, as well as the trellises they are growing on will all need to be moved together or you will damage the plants. But if you time the starting of your plants right, you may be able to move them before they get to big. But that assumes the fair is a couple months long, not just a week or two, or the plants will not get big enough to harvest before it's over. Also I believe pumpkins are a fall crop, so I'm not sure they will be ready to harvest during mid summer. Just my opinion, but if you want to get the kids interested, grow some fruit too, most kids aren't to excited about vegetables.
P.S.
If you want buckets to grow things in, I would recommend to go around to local restaurants, bars etc. and ask them if they will save what they would otherwise be throwing out for you. Some do return them, but a lot of them get thrown out. You will need to clean them out, and probably light proof them, but that will help your budget out a great deal. Anything you can use as a growing container, reservoir, even just buckets for cleaning or storing things. If you can get them free it will help your budget. Also if there are any construction sites around, they may have things they are throwing out you can use as well. I got all I wanted of 4 and 6 inch tubing from the sewer company for free that way, and their storage yard was only 3 blocks from my house.
Also all those buckets you see in the pictures of my greenhouse build were free from a local restaurant, he sets them aside by the trash bin for me to pick up. I go buy there about once a week. So far I have gotten about 20 buckets that range from 2 gallon, to 4 gallon square buckets, to the 5 gallon buckets. So look around and ask people for what they would normally be throwing out anyway. It's been my experience that people are generally happy to help you out, especially if it's not costing them anything. And most people would rather have things reused or recycled anyway. Just ask to speak to the owner of the business about it.
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