JANESVILLE
The Rock County 4-H Fair’s attendance last week provided another uptick for the event as the total for overall visitors outpaced attendance numbers for both 2016 and 2017.
According to fair board President Randy Thompson, Sunday’s numbers pushed the 2018 fair’s total head count to 71,800, marking the first time in three years the event has cracked the 70,000 mark.
That also means that while attendance is still at least 15,000 shy of an annual average for visitors going back to the late 1980s, it is showing a continued trend of climbing since 2016.
Thompson said he believes dry, temperate weather in the 70s and low 80s was a significant boost for attendance this year, but he said entertainment at the fair’s main stage and some new daytime events to broadened interest helped push attendance numbers up, too.
“We also had a pretty darn good line-up of main stage entertainment this year,” he said. “If I look at the majority of our shows, we had excellent crowds each and every night. And talking to our food vendors and our commercial (booths), they seemed to be very happy with how busy things were.”
Thompson said country singers Dylan Scott and Mark Chesnutt drew some of the best nighttime crowds of the week.
A gate count from late Saturday showed 11,688 people attended the fair that day, according to estimates supplied by the fair’s office.
On Sunday afternoon, Thompson predicted the fair had drawn at least 10,000 people during its final day. As of Sunday morning, he said week-long attendance had shown 61,117 people had come through the fair’s turnstiles.
“Looking on the grounds today, we’ve got a nice crowd who came back out for the bull-riding show. For that event, the grandstand is just about full,” Thompson said Sunday.
He also correctly predicted, “If I had to say today, we’re certainly going to surpass attendance for the past two years.”
Thompson said more young people with families have returned to the fair, sometimes for more than one visit during the week. He believes increased interest is tied to the fair offering more varied daytime entertainment.
This year, the fair brought in a daytime lumberjack show Thompson said proved popular, along with the daytime pig and duck races, which have become an annual mainstay.
Fair officials are considering a third daytime event in 2019.
For the fair, the hunt starts now for next year’s main stage entertainment. Thompson said those shows likely would be booked by early 2019.
“We’re trying to keep mixing things up in terms of our entertainment, always searching for that formula where we can give folks a good buy for their $10 at the gate.”
