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The 1982 World's Fair was held in Knoxville , Tennessee , in the United States . The theme of the exposition was "Energy Turns the World." It opened on May 1 , 1982 , and closed on October 31 , 1982 after receiving over 11 million visitors. Participating nations included Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United States, and West Germany, though Panama never occupied its pavilion space, which was eventually occupied by a group of Caribbean Island nations. The fair was constructed on a 70 acre site between downtown Knoxville and the University Of Tennessee . The Sunsphere , a 266-foot steel tower topped with a five-story bronze globe, was built for the 1982 World's Fair. It still stands and remains a symbol for the city of Knoxville . In 2007, the East Tennessee Historical Society opened an exhibit commemorating the 25th anniversary of the World's Fair. WORLD'S FAIR EARLY YEARS The idea for a World's Fair in Knoxville came from a visit to Spokane, Washington in 1974 that touted the benefits of the Expo for the city. Stewart Evans, president of the Downtown Knoxville association came up with the idea. He brought it to the city and the mayor. Knoxville Mayor Kyle Testerman appointed banker Jake Butcher to lead an exploratory committee on the fair, and Butcher served as the driving force behind the fair. Many Knoxvillians called it "Jake's Fair." {Link without Title} This was the second World's Fair to be held in the state, the first being the Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1897. OPENING DAY May 1st, 1982 the 1982 World's Fair opened with the Theme "Energy Turns the World". Across the nation, people had been bombarded with the Commercials. "You've Got To Be There" became the call for people to journey that summer to Tennessee. The opening ceremony was broadcast on local and regional TV. President Ronald Reagan arrived to open the fair. TV personality Dinah Shore was the mistress of ceremonies. Artists like Porter Wagoner and Rickey Scaggs performed as the gates were opened on Knoxville's Fair. 180 DAYS OF FUN The fair drew over 11 million visitors, making it one of the most popular world's fairs in U.S. history, and even turned a small profit ($57), but short of the projected $5 million surplus. {Link without Title} The most popular exhibits at the fair were those by China, Peru and Egypt. The Peruvian exhibit featured a mummy which was unwrapped and studied at the fair. The Egyptian exhibit featured ancient artifacts valued at over thirty million dollars. {Link without Title} DIFFICULTIES WITH THE FAIR The biggest problem associated with the fair was that local hotels and other accommodations were not allowed to directly take reservations for rooms during the fair. Room reservations for everything from hotels to houseboats sold in a package with fair admission tickets through the first 11 days of the fair were handled by a central bureau, Knoxvisit, but financial and administrative troubles pushed reservations to be taken over by PLM which itself filed for bankruptcy[http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AT&p_theme=at&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB7D0F62B6DDE83&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM and was mired in its own difficulties[http://www.newspaperarchive.com/LandingItems/GLP/LP9.aspx?search=knoxville%20international%20energy%20exposition&img=4uFNimLMxoSKID/6NLMW2r3DJMVAcJtg53+6WaVYZqG7nKoNS0J6mg==&site=google&fileType=jpg]. AFTER THE FAIR In 1991, the city of Knoxville demolished the US Pavillion in a controlled blast. The cleared site became a parking lot along Cumberland Ave. The former site of the Korean and Saudi Arabian pavilions and the Tennessee Gas Industries exhibit became host to a regular concert series for 8 years. In 2000, the park was closed for two years while a convention center was added in the space formerlly occupited by the Rich's/Millers Garage and the KUB Substation and the former site of America's Electric Energy Exhibit. In 2002, the World's Fair Park was reopened to general events and concerts, such as Earth Fest and Greek Fest . THE FAIR IN POPULAR CULTURE The fair was mentioned twice in '' The Simpsons ''. In the 1993 episode " Cape Feare ," Homer smokes a Knoxville World's Fair cigar in the movie theatre. On the Season 5 audio commentary for this episode, showrunner Al Jean comments that 1982 was a terrible world's fair. In the episode entitled " Bart On The Road ," Bart , Milhouse , Nelson and Martin take a trip to Knoxville under the belief that the World's Fair is still in progress (they choose Knoxville over Disney World ). They arrive at the site of the World's Fair to find the Sunsphere now being used as a storage for wigs. Subsequently, Nelson manages to knock it over by throwing a rock at it. It falls on the car they used to drive to Knoxville and flattens it. Later, as they walk off to find a way to get enough money to get home, Bart says "Everybody remember - we're parked under the Sunsphere." Seven arcade tokens were minted for the 1982 World's Fair, each with a different arcade game gracing its face. These tokens were given out at the arcade at the World's Fair itself. The seven games on each of the tokens are '' Pac-Man '', '' Ms. Pac-Man '', '' Space Invaders '', '' Qix '', '' Gorf '', '' Scramble '', and '' Donkey Kong ''. Each of these games was very popular at the time. A special Coke pin given to 500 dignitaries on opening day is the most prized pin from the fair. NEW INVENTIONS The Knoxville World's Fair debuted several new inventions, including touch screen monitors, boxed milk, the Cherry Coke flavor by Coca-Cola . Petro's also debuted at the 1982 World's Fair. {Link without Title} SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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