Attendance was up 15.35 percent for the first three days of the Nebraska State Fair.
ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Sunday, August 24, 2008 7:00 pm
The Nebraska State Fair is on its way to its fifth consecutive increase in annual attendance, based on results released Monday for the opening weekend.
The three-day total through Sunday was up 15.4 percent.
Barney Cosner, the fair’s executive director, credited good weather and new entertainment options for boosting turnout to almost 86,700 people.
“Great weather is not something you can put a measure on,” Cosner said. “That’s a huge positive, because Mother Nature can make or break an outdoor event.”
Attendance in this decade hit its low point of 238,000 in 2003. That was part of a trend in which the number of fairgoers filing through the gates dropped in five out of the six years from 1997 forward.
The 389,171 total for 1997 marked the first time that attendance was based on an actual head count, rather than an estimate. As the downward trend reversed itself, the 2007 fair reached 299,175.
The recent attendance trend defies the analysis of some observers that fairs are a dying tradition.
Nebraska’s 11-day event will leave State Fair Park for Grand Island after 2009 to make way for a research campus anchored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Cosner said that timetable may be another factor in attracting an audience this year. “I’m assuming there will be some people who will say they’ve only got 22 total days to see the fair (in Lincoln) and that could be a factor. I haven’t heard a lot of that.”
The final three days of the fair, from Saturday through Labor Day, typically make a bigger contribution to total attendance than the first three days.
One possible problem with that scenario are seven-day forecasts that suggest a return to temperatures in the 90s Sunday and Monday. A more difficult factor to assess is the first Cornhusker football game against Western Michigan in Lincoln Saturday night.
Cosner saw potential in the 6 p.m. kickoff time. Fairgoers could sandwich the game between fair visits.
“I think that’s a possibility, because once they pay, they can get their hand stamped and come back later.”
Reach Art Hovey at 473-7223 or at ahovey@journalstar.com.