2011 Fair Nearly Breaks Records

After an exciting run at the fair, workers finally have a minute to breathe and look back, and it’s all positive.

With hundreds of booths, 70 food vendors and sunny weather, 219,000 people came out, just 2,000 visitors short of breaking the attendance record set in 2009.

One big increase they saw was at the carnival, with rides enticing more visitors than ever.

Horse races were a huge hit, filling the stands almost every day.

Evening events also did well and they saved the best for last: a sold-out demolition derby Saturday night.

“We had horse racing that blew the doors off all attendance records. Carnival did really well. Lots of our events did well,” said Brandon Bird, general manager at the Fair. “We attribute that to good weather, good people and lots of food and fun.”

Fair workers say it will take about two weeks to take everything down and clean up after such a successful week.