Fair attendance far above fair

Fair weather and lots of new kid-friendly activities helped boost attendance at this year’s Spokane County Interstate Fair.

By the end of the day Sunday, more than 193,000 people had gone to the fair, up about 2.3 percent from the 189,000 who visited last year.

That is still less than half the people who attended the fair in the late 1980s, but this year’s upturn is the first time fair numbers have increased since 1998.

Last year – when it rained eight out of 10 days of the fair – was the low point in both attendance and weather.

Most fairgoers this year enjoyed sunshine.

“This was the second-best year that the carnival has had since they’ve been here, and this was their seventh year,” said Fair Director Dolly Hughes. “That was showing that people were enjoying themselves.”

Food booth revenue was up 10 percent, Hughes said. Livestock and home economics entries were up over last year, too.

The better weather encouraged a little more imbibing at the Spokane Central Lions beer garden.

“It was pretty severe last year,” said Lions’ beer garden Chairman Bill Funk, who added that while this year’s business was better than last, it wasn’t the best he’s seen in the years he’s worked the fund-raising booth.

The Lions use the money they raise for scholarships, preschooler hearing tests and programs for the blind, among other service projects. The beer garden is their biggest fund-raiser of the year.

Lower prices for some fair tickets also helped encourage more attendance.

But Mack’s Outdoor Manager Ted Reisenauer said that those who came were more interested in buying jewelry and trinkets than ATVs and other outdoor equipment.

“As far as I’m concerned, the Spokane Interstate Fair was a total disaster for us,” Reisenauer said, adding that after 20 years at the fair, Mack’s Outdoor won’t be back next year.

Fair attendance peaked in 1989, at almost 400,000 visitors, but increasing competition from other events and activities like Pig Out in the Park, area casinos and Silverwood has taken its toll.

This year’s fair had to compete with a weekend full of free activities celebrating the reopening of the Monroe Street Bridge in downtown Spokane.

The fairgrounds celebrated a bit of its own freshening up.

The old floral building has been replaced with a larger building that housed this year’s fine arts exhibits. And the fair entry area now has a display silo.

Fair organizers put an increased emphasis on kid-friendly activities.

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry offered several activities, and the Sunflower Saddle Ranch helped kids learn a variety of skills, including running a small tractor and milking cows.

“We tried to go with more of a Disneyland kind of thing, so that when you went around the corner there might be some kind of activity going on,” said Hughes. “We had a guy on stilts and the kids really loved him.”