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ABOVE EXPECTATIONS
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Gallery: Canfield Fair
Panorama: Canfield Fair
A view of the Canfield Fair, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009.
LUNCH BREAK: Eli Razo feeds 7-week-old Cornish rock cross chickens. His daughters, Anna and Maria, were showing the birds at this year’s Canfield Fair.
Five days of warm, sunny weather brought attendance figures back up from 2008.
By Elise Franco
CANFIELD — Fair board members are happy with the 163rd Canfield Fair.
Board member Timm Schreiber said attendance for the first five days of the six-day fair were up significantly from 2007 and 2008.
“This year has been above my expectations,” he said. “We’re up from the last two years.”
Schreiber said he credits the increase to the slow economy and the weather.
“A lot of people are saying they didn’t go on vacation, so they used the fair as their vacation,” he said. “We are just thankful they chose to come spend their money here.”
Schreiber said attendance for Sunday, which is usually the busiest day of the fair, was 84,282. The same day in 2008 saw 83,045 patrons.
He said he predicts attendance for Monday will be slightly lower than usual.
“I think because we had so many good days in a row, a lot of people came early,” Schreiber said. “I’d be happy with 50,000 for Monday.” 63,881 people attended the last day of the fair in 2008.
He said another reason Monday figures may be lower than in past years is because the board decided not to have a Grandstand show Monday night.
“We opted to have one big show this year because we felt people couldn’t afford to support two,” Schreiber said. “It’s a one-time thing. We chose to be more conservative this year.”
Though fair-goers had brief periods of light rain to deal with Monday afternoon, the first five days of the fair were sunny and warm, bringing in hordes of people. Schreiber said it’s been years since the weather has been so consistent.
“It’s got to be at least eight or ten years since the last time we’ve had weather like this,” he said. “To have a perfect five days in a row is unheard of.”
Judge Jim Evans, fair board president, said he has no complaints about the 163rd Canfield Fair.
“I think the fair went very well this year,” he said. “The overall complaints were probably to a minimum, and I can’t think of one issue we weren’t able to accommodate.”
Evans, who is finishing up the second year in his two-year term as board president, said before the fair kicked-off, the board had no idea what to expect in terms of attendance.
“The last three months before the fair we were putting out feelers,” he said. “Other big fairs were down significantly, but [the company that provides the amusement rides] kept telling us the church festivals and smaller county fairs were up.”
Schreiber said the three and six-day pass sales nearly doubled from 2008. He said about 3,000 three-day passes were sold for $15 each, and about 1,500 six-day passes were sold for $30 each.
He also said the implementation of credit card machines at the three main gates was successful.
“People thought it was a great idea to have the credit card machines at the gates,” Schreiber said. “It gives them a little bit more money to spend on concessions and other things inside the fair.”
efranco@vindy.com
The Canfield Fair came to a close Monday, and fair board members said it was an all-around successful year. Attendance figures for the fair are:
WEDNESDAY
Aug. 27, 2008: 14,690.
Sept. 2, 2009: 25,663.
THURSDAY
Aug. 28, 2008: 25,062.
Sept. 3, 2009: 41,307.
FRIDAY
Aug. 29, 2008: 40,572.
Sept. 4, 2009: 46,703.
SATURDAY
Aug. 30, 2008: 74,936.
Sept. 5, 2009: 78,965.
SUNDAY
Aug. 31, 2008: 83,045.
Sept. 6, 2009: 84,282.
MONDAY
Sept. 1, 2008: 63,881.
Sept. 7, 2009: Estimated at 50,000.
TOTAL
2008: 302,186.
2009: N/A.
Average total attendance: 400,000.
Record total attendance: 539,437, in 1979.
Record single-day attendance: 158,423 on Sun., Sept. 2, 1979.
Source: Canfield Fair Administration and Farris Marketing
Comments
that's hordes, not hoards of people... unless someone keeps fair attendees stuffed in an attic somewhere. in closing, glad to see the fair went well, and no one got stabbed next to a mechanical bull like at the trumbull county fair. i won a stuffed husky dog/raccoon toy playing that water balloon squirt gun game. it was a fun year!
Had a great time at the fair. Ate foods like corn dog, funnel cake, and good old fashioned lemon shakeup that I don't get any other time of the year. Hank Williams Jr. was awesome. Great fair again!!!
Fixed, north_side.
My wife won a big teddy bear at the same game!
Mark Sweetwood
Managing Editor
Take the hyphen out of "estimated" where describing attendance figures for Monday.
the fair was great this year and normally i hate going. i would say the worst part of it was the parking...maybe next year they can hire adults who know what to do?
juror, don't blame the kids, they were only doing what they were told to do. I arrived at 4:30 PM on Friday and they had whole parking areas that were half empty from people leaving, taped off. Because of this you had to walk a half mile just to get to the gate. The walk was no big deal since I walk 3 miles a day anyways but the concept was stupid.
I went friday around 2. Parked in D5 not that far of a walk even with the granddaughter and stroller. Walked around very sparse crowds sampling all that great food with no lines. Cant wait until next year
I'm from PA and don't go to the Canfield Fair anymore because of the lousy parking -- which only seems to get worse every year. People don't like sitting in traffic for hours! When are you dummies going fix that situation ??
In the meantime, I'll stick to fairs here in Western PA.......all the same food & rides with no parking hassles.
the only bad thing i have to say about the fair is for the traffic control ................they sucked i have never been to that fair and had to wait an hour to get out, also the fair pays for people to sit and lounge in golf carts. UNBELIEVABLE. they really need to let people park there own cars........ paint lines on the grass
the amount of people you pay to park cars you could paint your grass and still be well ahead. i tried to be patient while some 15 yr old kids tell me how to park a full size van that needs room to pull out. the closeness between cars unreal......sorry one more comment i payed for wrist band only to find my child had to ride same rides because some of the operators were telling me my child was either to tall or to short what kind of s--t is that by maybe 1/4 inch.....what a joke