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Trumbull fair success this year was a matter of degrees
By Ed Runyan
BAZETTA
It was a matter of degrees as to the success of this year’s Trumbull County Fair.
Tom Sawyer, president of the Trumbull County fair board, said this year’s running of the summer classic had some rain, but not to the degree that it had last year. It had heat and humidity, but not to the degree it had last year.
And in the end, the fair’s paid attendance was up 6 percent this year over 2012 — 45,547 people this year compared with 42,918 in 2012.
This year’s fair had a rough start, with a downpour Wednesday afternoon sending most people for their cars and making mud pits out of many of the grass and dirt parking areas. Attendance was only 875 Wednesday.
It was then that the fair board decided to provide busing between the fairgrounds and Trumbull Career & Technical Center for the remainder of the week.
Few people used that busing, however, because dry conditions Thursday through Sunday allowed the parking lots to recover.
“It was better than I thought it would be,” Sawyer said of parking.
Motor sports planned for Wednesday were moved to Sunday to complement the demolition derby and fireworks already set for that day.
Though hot Saturday and Sunday, people turned out in big numbers — 12,224 on Saturday and 12,449 on Sunday, Sawyer said.
Several people were treated for heat-related illnesses over the weekend, said Bazetta Township Fire Chief Dennis Lewis.
Sawyer said the heat and humidity this year were high, but the temperature was above 95 with high humidity in 2012.
“I think everything was a lot better,” he said. “We didn’t have the heat, and everybody cooled off and relaxed and enjoyed themselves.”
As for the financial bottom line, Sawyer said the fair was pretty much a break-even venture, not productive enough to carry out a large off-season rebuilding project, but not a loss, either.