Attendance up from last year’s Walworth County Fair, planning for next year already underway
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
Despite scorching heat over the entirety of the 2015 Walworth County Fair, attendance saw a slight upswing this year, something the fair’s new general manager is thrilled about.
Attendance for the “Just Another Day in Paradise” themed fair reached 135,879 over the six days of the fair, more than 2,000 more attendees than last year and more than 5,000 more than in 2013, which marked a record low for the fair since 1975’s total attendance of 119,223 fair-goers.
Walworth County Fairgrounds Manager Larry Gaffey said he thinks expanding the fair’s marketing efforts this year played a large factor. He said fair staff reached out to markets they haven’t in a while this year, such as the northern suburbs of Chicago, Kenosha and Racine counties, and Madison, through digital marketing efforts.
Digital marketing has proven that with the right plans in place, people can be reached through these means resulting in larger responses to what is being advertised. That is why some organizers will take an advanced digital marketing course as well as other training to help them create something they can put out there in a positive light.
“There were a lot of people here that haven’t been to our fair before,” he said.
“We were getting phone calls from the northwest suburbs of Chicago asking about our fair.”
Gaffey said he also thinks lowering gate prices to $7 prior to 2 p.m. on weekdays and a wristband special run by the midway helped to increase attendance for this year’s fair.
Gaffey said he received an email Tuesday morning from North American Midway Entertainment, the midway company that’s been working with the fair for nearly 50 years now, saying had the weather not been as hot it very well could have been a record year for the fair.
“I’m sure that kept some people at home,” Gaffey said. “Also, there was a threat of rain everyday and sometimes people won’t spend money to go to a fair if they think they’re going to get rained on … that has an effect on how people plan their weekends.”
Gaffey said though weather might have been a little rough for fair-goers, people still came out and people still love the fair.
“People were still smiling, having fun,” he said. “The patrons were enjoying themselves. You waved, they’d wave back. This is really a friendly fair.”
Gaffey also said the midway company told him Monday was their best day this year, with profits up more than 20 percent from Labor Day last year.
In addition to less than desirable weather, Gaffey said having a later Labor Day weekend this year worked against the fair, with many area schools having already started the Monday before the fair began.
“That was working against us too for attendance numbers and we still did better,” he said.
Gaffey said two of the fair’s new events this year, a monster truck rally and bull riding and barrels, drew great crowds for their first year.
Additionally, he said they had to set up a tent with extra stalls for draft horses this year, something which proved to be a major draw. He said next year, based on conversation, they expect turnout for draft horses to be even higher.
“I’m expecting draft horses to be on an upswing for next year too,” he said.
Overall, however, Gaffey said he thinks it’s the entries, the multitudes of people from surrounding communities participating in each year’s fair, that bring families out year after year.
“Those numbers are really high for this fair,” he said.
Gaffey, who said he grew up going to the Clay County Fair in Iowa, touted as one of the best fairs in the country, said he’s proud to be working with the greatest county fair he’s been to.
“This is the nicest fair I’ve ever been to,” he said. “I’ve been really spoiled, but this is even nicer than that.”
Looking toward 2016
While Gaffey said this year’s fair was already set to go when he was hired on as the general manager, he’s been working with fair staff on planning next year’s fair since he was hired in May.
While he said they can’t say a lot about next year’s county Fair, he and fair staff will be meeting with fair superintendents soon to discuss this year’s fair while it’s still fresh in everyone’s memory and begin to determine what they can improve upon for next year.
“I want to hear what they have to say,” he said. “Everything can always be better.
“I think continuing to try and improve, to make a great thing even better, is something that we should do every year.”
