WASHINGTON CO. FAIR ATTENDANCE DOWN FROM 2019
Crowds were down by a noticeable amount at this year’s Washington County Fair from previous years, according to fair officials.
Numbers provided by Washington County Fair Manager Dean Fuchs show the 2021 fair had a total paid attendance of 37,647 for “clicker counted” tickets checked at the gate. That total is down 19.7 percent from the last paid fair in 2019, which had 46,884 guests. No tickets were sold for 2020’s fair.
Measuring attendance for individual days, opening night on Wednesday had 6,801 guests, compared to 9,343 in 2019. Thursday saw 6,214 guests, while Thursday’s attendance in 2019 was 8,401. Crowds on Friday measured at 9,428, compared to 2019’s tally of 11,228. The conclusion of the fair on Saturday brought in 15,204 guests, while the final day of the fair two years ago had a turnout of 17,912.
No attendance numbers are available for the opening weekend and Tuesday of the fair, as those days have free entry.
The four queen candidates sold 5,173 season tickets for $206,910. The combined ticket sales record of $221,436 was set in 2018.
While overall attendance numbers may have been down, the junior livestock auction hit an all-time high in total sales. The unofficial total for the auction was $922,247, over $100,000 more than the previous record of $814,450 set in 2019.
When tickets are 40 dollars a piece, yea attendance will be down. If you sold tickets for 25 dollars you would have an uptick in sells. It’s about quantity of sales that leads to more people showing up. If you have a family of four it cost you 160 dollars for a season ticket. That’s before you get into the gate. Then you have to buy food that’s another 65 dollars. For a working family that’s hard to come by.
Stop trying to make up for 2020, it kind up backfired on the Fair it seems like.
That’s because other years we were advised while working the gate to count every time a person entered the gate be it their first time of the day or taking items to & from their car outside the gate some people were counted 3-4 times a day at least. the new scan system gives a real one day count.
Really sad to watch the auction & see the number of large companies representatives, elected officials who take up space at the auction but never lift a finger to buy anything just socializing, if not for a select few dedicated buyers the kids would get very little compensation for their hard work, look at sales in Burleson co sale totals $2,231,630
Yes. That makes sense. Besides Covid-19, the line up of performers this year was average, to below average. Better bands, more people. Also, charge less at the gate. If the entrance fee is less, overall, you will get a higher gate count, and the patrons will spend more inside, since they did not over pay at the gate. Again, just my observation, what is yours?