| HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source |
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2010 4:35 pm |
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Local News 
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Fewer people visit Monroe fair Officials blame rain for a 6 percent drop in attendance at the Evergreen State Fair this year. MONROE — The rain moved in, the rides stopped running and the bratwurst wasn’t selling at the end of this year’s Evergreen State Fair.Sandy Cameron, owner of Snohomish-based Ziegler’s Bratwurst Haus, said some of her workers went home early during Labor Day weekend, often the fair’s busiest days. Sales had been solid earlier in the week, but lightning and thunder drove away the customers. “People just were not there,” she said. All told, 715,000 people attended the fair in Monroe, according to fair officials. That was off 6 percent from the 761,000 people who visited during the rainy 2008 fair and a 19 percent plummet from the 882,000 people who turned out in 2007. Fair officials called 2007 a banner year and pointed to the sky to explain two straight years of diminished crowds. “We’re going to put someone else in charge of weather next year,” said Peter Camp, executive director for Snohomish County, which operates the fairgrounds. The 12-day event now sits in the minority. Many fairs nationwide have reported gains in attendance, according to industry tracking groups. Camp said financial audits were still underway on the Evergreen State Fair. He did not have budget figures available. When the fair makes a profit, the county puts money into a fairgrounds improvement fund, he said. That figure usually totals about $175,000, but may drop this year. “It wasn’t a great year financially or in terms of attendance, but it was a solid year,” he said. “It wasn’t a year where we say, ‘Oh, my gosh, what went wrong?’ ” The International Association of Fairs and Expositions, a Missouri group that represents more than 1,300 fairs nationwide, found that about two-thirds of the fairs it tracked drew larger crowds this year, with a third setting personal records. While a poor economy can boost fair attendance by keeping families close to home, bad weather is able to ruin even the best-planned event. Large crowds at the Puyallup Fair reinforced that idea. Puyallup reported attendance of 1.18 million people during a sunny 17-day stretch, a modest gain on the 1.16 million people who visited in 2008. Planning has begun for next year’s Evergreen State Fair, which will run from Aug. 26 to Sept. 6, 2010. Fairgrounds manager Mark Campbell said his staff may tweak the attractions it offers to draw crowds. “We want to put in the most value that we possibly can,” he said. Cameron isn’t looking for any huge shift. She plans to be at the fair in 2010, again serving more bratwurst and heaping baskets of curly fries. She said the fair should be mindful of ticket prices, which increased a small amount this year, but otherwise had no complaints. “Of all the shows we do, that’s actually my favorite,” she said. Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455, arathbun@heraldnet.com. |
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