By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Numbers can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people and members of the Crawford County Fair Board were expected to get plenty of figures to decipher Wednesday evening. The numbers were the final tally from the 2016 edition of the Crawford County Fair.
“Attendance was down maybe 2,000,” said Fair Board Secretary Rebecca Starner. “But that’s not bad since it was so hot.”
The temperatures really soared the last half of fair week and that showed in revenue from paid admissions. Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the fair were off about $8,000 from 2015. That more than offset the $1,400 paid attendance was up over the first four days of the fair.
Fair Board Treasurer Tom Laughbaum noted the grandstand entertainment portion of the fair was down extra revenue from one traditional evening’s act as well.
“No concert,” Laughbaum said. “The Fair Jam – that concert the tickets included admission.”
Although Fair Jam, a Christian music concert, returned after a year’s hiatus, this year’s fair was the first in several years the fair board did not bring in a name act for a concert. Harness racing increased from one to two nights to take up the slack, but admission to the grandstands for racing is free.
“I’d love to,” Starner said about the fair board getting back in the concert business, “if we can get some community support.”
In spite of a decrease in attendance and related revenues, Laughbaum said the Fair Board’s accounts were up about $10,000. But he cautioned they were still trying get everything reconciled for the electric bill during the fair and that figure could easily change.
Some of the good numbers from the fair came from the Junior Fair Livestock Sale. This year the Sale of Champions was moved to Saturday morning from Friday night. The sale of the balance of Junior Fair livestock remained on Saturday, but followed the Sale of Champions.
“I heard a couple of people say they liked it better,” Laughbaum said.
Starner shared a text from the livestock committee which reported the entire Junior Fair Livestock Sale raised more than $500,000 for the young exhibitors. Both Starner and the livestock committee chair called the figure “impressive.”
Starner added the checks resulting from the sale were expected to be sent to the exhibitors this week or next.
RELATED CONTENT: ‘All good things come to an end’ at record-setting Sale of Champions