Rain, mud take toll on attendance at fair

Trumbull County Fair ticket sales hit the break-even point.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
BAZETTA -- Attendance at the Trumbull County Fair slid by about 25 percent this year because of rain and muddy parking lots, fair board officials say.
The fair board sold about 40,000 full-price tickets for the weeklong event this year, compared with 53,000 last year, said board president Richard Roscoe.
Board members say that 40,000 is just about the number they need to break even.
One-day tickets, which sell for $6 or $7, are a primary source of revenue for the fair, and ticket sales are the primary indication of whether the annual expo will meet its budget.
"We should be OK," Roscoe said. "Just so we get everything paid, we should be all right."
Final figures on how the fair did financially won't be available for another month or so, he said.
Grandstand was full
Despite torrential rain early in the week, which turned grass parking lots and much of the fairgrounds to mud, the 5,000 seat grandstand was nearly full most nights.
Friday evening's rodeo -- the first ever at the Trumbull County Fair -- drew a three-fourths capacity crowd to the grandstand, Roscoe said.
"Hopefully, we will have them back next year," he said.
Attendance on Friday may have suffered because people didn't know they could avoid getting stuck in the fairground's muddy parking lots by parking in Champion and taking a bus, Roscoe said.
After selling about 5,800 tickets Friday, attendance rebounded during the weekend. About 11,000 tickets were sold on both Saturday and Sunday.
General admissions tickets represent only a portion of the people at the fairgrounds on any given day. Between vendors, exhibitors and hundreds of 4-H members, fair board members estimate that there are about 5,000 people more or less in residence on the fairgrounds during fair week.
siff@vindy.com