Cooler weather helped fair attendance

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

While exact numbers have yet to be tallied, attendance at the Van Wert County Fair increased and cooler temperatures and lower humidity played a big role in that. For the majority of people, the fair began last Tuesday and ended Monday night but for others, it came to a close with Tuesday’s large livestock sale.

“Our fair attendance numbers were up considerably,” Fair Manager Mike Poling said. “Thursday we got hurt a little bit because of showers, Monday we were off a little bit and we’re still trying to digest why that was. (We know) part of that was we jockeyed our grandstand schedule, which might have hurt us a little bit by moving the demo derby off of Monday to Saturday, but attendance for the derby was up considerably so that was a good thing.”

“The weather was so nice that Saturday and Sunday were recordbreakers for us at the outside gates,” Poling continued. “We had food vendors running out of food and shutting down early – Venedocia (Lions Club) ran out of sausage at 1-1:30 p.m. on Monday and we had several others closing down because they were running out of product. Overall, that cooler weather just made it very bearable and enjoyable to come out to the fair and walk around, take your time, enjoy the food, enjoy the different livestock shows and entertainment that we had lined up in the grandstand. It just made it real accommodating.”

This year’s fair also featured several incentive days, including half-off day, Senior Day, Veterans Day and First Responders Day. Another popular option was the lunch pass, which returned the admission fee to lunchgoers Tuesday through Friday.

This year’s grandstand entertainment included harness racing, the annual cheerleading competition, motocross, a tractor pull, the demolition derby, a monster truck show that nearly sold out and a rodeo. While those events proved to be popular, absent from this year’s lineup was a big grandstand musical act, which Poling explained.

“We just cannot find a happy medium on an act and a price tag to where we get our money back,” he stated. “The last several musical acts we’ve had for the grandstand have lost money, so we put the emphasis on the music as free entertainment. We had Cochren & Co. (Christian contemporary band) Sunday night that drew a heck of a crowd for us and that was free. We had RENÉE here on Thursday and they’re more of a regional act, and we had several others throughout the week.”

Duelling Pianos performed at the Wallace Plumbing Beer and Entertainment Tent Sunday night and it drew a nice sized crowd. While those acts were successful on a smaller scale, Poling reiterated it’s a been a challenge to find the right genre to the right group that fair patrons will come out to support.

Next year’s fair will begin on September 1 and will run through September 7.