Fair attendance increases

GRANT COUNTY — The Grant County Fair drew almost 700 people more this year than last year.

Attendance rose from 41,400 people last year to 42,092 people this year. While more people attended, estimates show a $2,988 drop in ticket sales, according to the fair board.

Fair-grounds Manager Vern Cumm-ings said the money is still being counted and is likely to change during the next few weeks.

While counters marked about 700 more people during the week, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday saw increases in attendance of 621, 76 and 853. There were decreases in attendance on Wednesday and Thursday.

“That two days of hot weather didn’t help us much,” Cummings said. “Attendance was down on those hot days.”

While there was a drop in the amount spent on tickets, other revenue sources such as vendors are still being calculated, he said.

Cummings said holding the fair a week later than normal allowed the company to bring in more rides, pointing to an increase of about $5,000.

“There were rides that the kids really liked and it showed. We’re thinking that this week later worked out OK in that respect,” he said. “We worked hard at trying to get ready and I think we were about as ready as any fair I’ve seen.”

Cummings said they are looking at events for next year to involve the community more, such as a log rolling event.

He said there weren’t any problems this year, pointing to new covered seating and the new bathrooms as improvements at the fairgrounds people enjoyed.

Parking wasn’t a problem during the fair this year, Cummings said. The fair board decided to not charge for parking this year after the commissioners asked them. Parking was handled by Job Corps this year.

Cumm-ings said they are planning on looking at improving the lighting in the parking lots.

“I don’t want any dark spots out there anywhere next year,” Cummings said.

Rodeo association President Nic Dirks said the lighting was much better this year, and sawdust used on the green and part of the blue parking lot kept the dust down better.

“Instead of watering it every two hours, we felt that if you watered it in the morning that sawdust held the moisture in the parking lot and kept the dust down for the day,” he said.

Dirks said the rodeo saw increases in attendance and the amount of participants as well. While tickets are still being counted, he expects an increase of at least 5 percent.

“Our concessions were up,” he added.