Fair Attendance Level, Shows Down

DAYTON - Despite great weather, the Columbia County Fair held Sept. 9-11 in Dayton didn't bring in the amount of visitors that organizers had hoped.

Fair Manager Shane Laib said the happiest person during fair weekend was the ice cream man because the hot weather boosted his sales.

Overall, ticket sales were about the same as last year, not reaching the 5,000 person goal Laib had described before the fair. Laib said the fair sold more single day passes than season passes and the fair will look at changing the cost structure next year to get more people through the gates and to keep them coming back.

Also, the demolition derby that promised to put many bodies in seats did not break even, he said. "We're not sure why," Laib said.

He heard feedback from the community that the demolition derby would sell more tickets if it was moved to Sunday.

The Bull Blast went well and the winner of the event collected $1,112 in prize money.

The return of the beer garden this year also did well and broke even, Laib said, and the barbecue was more popular than ever.

The fair put money into advertising in local newspapers and traveled to Southeast and Western Oregon to spread the word of the Columbia County Fair and Laib said he thought organizers did a good job with what they had.

"We stretch those dollars as far as we can," he said.

What really paid off, according to Laib, were the remodels at the fairgrounds that were debuted at the fair.

The pavilion was renovated to have more useable space and garage doors were put in under the west grandstand.

"There is still a little bit of finish work to be done," he said.

Next year, the fair will focus on recruiting more animals and projects from local kids because numbers were low this year. The livestock market sale only took 1.5 hours. Sheep numbers were down, and although the fair had many hogs registered, 21 of them didn't make weight, he said. Rabbits and poultry were down too.

The fair also saw less 4-H exhibits than usual. Laib said there were only six quilts. Next year, organizers are thinking of having craft projects available for kids to do.

Laib reported that vendor numbers were down as well and three vendors simply didn't show up as registered. The vendors who were present did very well, he said. The Kiwanis sold a record 900 hamburgers during the fair .

Another impressive number from the fair is the amount of premium money given out, not including the livestock auction money. Laib said fair winners got a piece of $8,500 in premium money.

Laib is still anticipating cuts to the fair's budget at the state level for the fair in 2012 and is tucking away money whenever possible. Currently, the state's contribution makes up about half of the fair's budget.