Trend goes on as Spokane fair attendance falls

Spokane County Interstate Fair attendance this year fell below 200,000 visits for the first time since 1968.

Bad weather was partly the culprit, but the hard reality is that fair attendance has been steadily declining for years and is just half of what it was 15 years ago.

Attendance this year was a little more than 189,000, down from 211,000 last year.

In 1989, almost 400,000 people went to the Spokane County fair.

Fair director Dolly Hughes blames competing activities and changing interests for the fair’s downward trend in attendance. And current and past visitors cite high prices for rides and food, a lack of new activities and a growing emphasis on commercial exhibits as reasons why they don’t enjoy the fair the way they once did.

Jill Simmons and her husband went to the fair in 2003, but skipped it this year.

“It was so disappointing. Everything was so expensive,” she said, adding that she and her husband probably spent $40.

This year, Simmons got her fried elephant-ear fix at Pig Out in the Park, where there was no entrance fee.

“When I was a kid, the fair was something you looked forward to all year. Now it seems like it’s just a money-making trap,” Simmons said.

Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley said, “I think we need to put more money into better programs at night. That would bring people in.”

“We can put the blame on the weather, and certainly that was a key factor this year, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s the basis of the fair,” he added. “What’s there to attract the people?”

However, Hughes said the fair gives people a good bang for their buck.

“We haven’t changed our prices in two years. We’re less expensive than going to a movie,” Hughes said.

But there are plenty of other places for people to spend their entertainment dollars, she added.

Silverwood has bigger rides, Pig Out in the Park has more food and the casinos around Spokane bring in similar oldies and country music acts.

Meanwhile, the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo is flourishing.

Last year, the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo had record attendance with 76,580 people. Fair coordinator Margi Domme said that record probably would have been broken again this year if it hadn’t rained the first two days of the fair.

“We were quite respectable, especially with two days of torrential downpours,” Domme said, adding that 68,349 people visited the Kootenai County Fairgrounds during Aug. 25-29. Friday, Saturday and Sunday attendance was up from last year and Saturday broke the one-day attendance record with 16,769 people. Domme said there was no special event to attract more people, except the rodeo, and sunny weather.

Rain didn’t help the Spokane County Interstate Fair this year, either.

“Let’s think about the weather. Out of 10 days of the fair this year, we had only two days that didn’t have any rain,” said Hughes.

While she believes that weather was the primary factor in this year’s poor numbers, Spokane County Commissioner Kate McCaslin said it’s also true that people nationwide aren’t as interested in fairs as they once were, and that it might pay to do some market research to see what people want out of the fair.

Hughes said she and the other fair staff are always working to bring in new attractions to the Spokane County Interstate Fair.

“One of the greatest things we had this year was our papier mache animals. The youngsters who did those and participated in those had a great time,” she said.

But Hughes said she always keeps in mind the need to balance new activities with the fair’s history and role in educating people about farm life.

Brad Smith’s three kids prefer the rides, but he and his wife go to the fair for the animals.

“The fair provides an opportunity to see elements of the farm lifestyles that are now foreign to us ‘city slickers,’ ” Smith said.

He used a discounted family pack to buy the kids a few rides but keep the emphasis on everything else.

Spokane County will have spent about $16 million by 2006 on Fair and Expo Center improvements, including a new food area and grandstand already in place.

That’s a good investment, said McCaslin, who pointed out that the fairgrounds are an enterprise fund that must pay for themselves, other than capital improvements, and that the improvements provide people a much better experience when they attend the fair.

Responding to an e-mail inquiry from The Spokesman-Review, Norman Patton urged fair planners to stick to agriculture.

“If the fair would get back to its roots, become contemporarily relevant to the next generation, such as featuring new farming methods, tackling relevant issues such as genetic research and kick out the commercial vendors, then I believe attendance would increase at least by one, me,” Patton wrote.