Reichow7120 Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 Those of who have attended the above mentioned events. How have they seemed to you? Exhibitors up, down or the same? Same question with attendance. This summer I attended Red Power Roundup and this week was our county fair. I had plans on attending 2 neighboring county fairs last week. One for a NTPA pull. But when the severe thunderstorms rolled through with high winds, it wrecked my plans on attending the pull and that fair and I never made the other one. Our county fair normally is a well participated fair. Our beef, swine shows have always been top notch in my opinion. Also a lot of other participation. This year it was kinda a letdown. Not much there. Exhibits were down quite noticeably. To be honest it was kinda depressing. There were parts of the fairgrounds that were empty that ive never seen empty before. Has this been common everywhere? Or is this a problem unique to my area. I realize our idiot governor didn't help the cause because it didn't look like we were going to open up until well into June and of course most Animal projects are in motion by then as well as other projects and events. It wasn't like this in 2019. But it looks like not having a fair in 2020 punched it square in the teeth. Hopefully it can bounce back but I'm not sure. They had to get money from the County to have one this year from what I've been told ( dont know if its a loan or a grant). This was exactly what I was afraid of with last year. A lost year of income has put these events into a world of hurt. There is another festival next month that usually had 3 days of rodeos ( well attended at that) only has 1 this year. Just wondering what other People's observations are in different areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirt_Floor_Poor Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 I hadn’t went to the county fair here for years. My daughter really wanted to go to the carnival that they have there, so we went. It was absolutely jammed. I saw one or two people in masks, but that was about it. I think people here were just glad to get out. So many people were in there that we couldn’t hardly move around and then a traffic jam to get out when we were done. Nobody seemed too scared of any virus there. Was a good time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TractormanMike.mb Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 This week is the UP state fair. I didn't get a chance to go but from what I've been hearing attendance is strong. Our local county fair was above average but that's partly due to a bunch of new fair board members bringing new ideas. The UP steam and gas show is labor day weekend, I'm hoping for a good turnout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SASW6 Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 Badger Steam and Gas show was in my thoughts was bigger than ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lenray Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 2 hours ago, TractormanMike.mb said: This week is the UP state fair. I didn't get a chance to go but from what I've been hearing attendance is strong. Our local county fair was above average but that's partly due to a bunch of new fair board members bringing new ideas. The UP steam and gas show is labor day weekend, I'm hoping for a good turnout. I was at the FAIR IN ESCANABA with daughters and some grands----we had a wonderful time. VERY CLEAN and just a joy to attend................Birthing barn was good.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes806 Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 I thought the country fair was less then before. They didn't have any older tractors on display as they always did before. Alot less venders and set up more rides then before. Have seen more people there in years before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TroyDairy Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 Yes we just finished the Fair and people were down but the border closed is some of that for sure. But yeah the vendors...food guys etc are thin. ALOT didn't make it though the lock downs and such. Just sad for .80% chance of death virus. Cousin is one of the main guys at the Fairgrounds and they are really struggling financially. The Fair went from 6 to 10 day...then we had freak 100 degree days in a row so that hurt attendance. Today felt pretty busy. Alot less kids in 4H and FFA. 2 years of kids graduating out. And then families kinda forgetting about it. Kids 6th grade teams seeing same thing. From horse to cows to chickens all the barns are light animalwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bud guy Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 I haven't been to our local 4 county fair for almost 2 decades. But it has been dying a slow death. However, this year I was told attendance was way up. I suspect its just a one maybe two year anomaly. Part of the problem has been this fair has had to split the carnival with another fair 100 miles away. For some reason this year our fair got the whole carnival so that might have helped too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DT Fan Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 I would say the county fair here was about average this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TractormanMike.mb Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 49 minutes ago, lenray said: I was at the FAIR IN ESCANABA with daughters and some grands----we had a wonderful time. VERY CLEAN and just a joy to attend................Birthing barn was good.... Glad to hear you had an enjoyable time. I always enjoy the birthing barn as well. The farm I worked for usually would bring a dozen cows due to freshen the week of the fair. There are a number of other agricultural exhibits on display there as well and a forestry one that I never paid much attention to but now that I'm employed by the logging industry might find interesting. I should make more of an effort to visit the fair seeing that it is in my backyard. I usually only go if there is a show I want to see in the grandstand. Are you going to be in the area for the steam and gas show in a couple weeks. If you are let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawleigh99 Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 We just had our 86th annual fireman's carnival first of the month. They had to skip last year, but this year it was back with some new rides even. It was packed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brewcrew Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 I was just at our county fair yesterday. The midway seemed like a typical crowd. My friend is a superintendent for the diorama project, and he said total entries were down 1200, and down 500 exhibitors. His area was down about a third. I’m hearing that the grandstand is selling out every night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acem Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 Town festivals are way off here. Attendees and vendors. Flea markets, yard sales, etc are way off as well. Our county fair is this week. Thx-Ace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
806JR Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Had our county fair a couple weeks ago and attendance was way above normal. All the other fairs around have had the same from what I’ve heard. Have went to a couple threshing shows lately and attendance has been very high there also. Our state fair starts next week so we will see how the attendance is there. Have heard that there is over 100 food vendors not setting up there this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wi Ih Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Was at the nhra drag race in brainerd this weekend and I would say it was close to normal. One vendor guy I know there said it was down slightly because no Canadians there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clay neubauer Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Every event we've been to or close to in Iowa has been very strong. Went to Airventure in Oshkosh in July, they ended up with 608,000 in attendance which was close to their record set in 2019 without having some of the international travelers that are normally there. It was a blast and absolutely nobody was Rona-panicking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cattech Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Attended the Nowthen Threshing Show Friday and Saturday. Friday was hot and I would say the crowd was on the low side of average. Saturday cooled off, and it was the busiest I've ever seen. They had to open the back gates and park cars inside the grounds. I only saw a couple people in masks, don't think there were too many people worried about a pandemic going around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjf711 Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 havent been attending fairs here myself so no comment. Went to large farm sale that was no online bidding this year, equipment was about 75%, people also slightly down. Would rather have just bid online but they took the option away for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheIHMan Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Since we have the pulling tractor that we run around with on the state level I have probably been to 25 different fairs in Illinois/Missouri this summer. Most fairs have had average attendance for the tractor pulls with a few pulls with attendance much larger than normal. Pulling tractor wise numbers have been down all summer. A lot of tractors sitting in the shop due to parts availability but I think also some sitting due to guys finding other hobbies last summer. For Red Power Roundup this year it was kind of a similar story, I thought it was well attended people wise but I was very disappointed with the number of local tractors that were there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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