Around 95,000 people attend county fair
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 20, 2017 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Art exhibits were a part of the 6,000 entries this year during the Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Fairgoers fill the Midway at the Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair. Fair manager Eddie Pitzer said an estimated 95,000 people came out to the fair during its first full 10-day run in three years.
DUDLEY -- An estimated 95,000 people made their way through the Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair over its 10-day run from Sept. 28 to Oct. 7.
That included those who purchased tickets, entered exhibits or participated in the variety of competitions, fair Manager Eddie Pitzer said.
Pitzer said there are no data to reflect what the fair's economic impact on the county is.
"It is probably something that we need to look at," he said. "I really don't know what the impact is. But when you do look when the carnival comes in, the amount of diesel fuel that they buy, the groceries, the supplies, the equipment. Most of those products come local. That would be a good number to have.
"I know that local businesses want to know when the fair is going to be coming so that they can staff accordingly for that. That gives you some indication that it's beneficial to those businesses."
It was the first time in three years the fair has gotten its full run in. In 2016 it lost three out of 10 days because of Hurricane Matthew and in 2015 it lost five out of 10 because of heavy rains.
The only rain this year fell on the final day.
"But we did get the demolition derby in which was good because we had good attendance at it," Pitzer said. "But Saturday afternoon was a little slow with the weather conditions, but Saturday evening we had good attendance and kind of made up some of that attendance on Saturday.
"All in all we had a good event. We didn't have any major problems that came about. We had good entries in our exhibit halls. In fact this year we had about 6,000 entries in the different divisions that were on exhibit."
One of those, a drawing of a German shepherd by Jennifer Pittman of Belfast, was submitted to the N.C. State Fair where it won adult Best of Show.
"That is a contest the N.C. State Fair promotes and they make it to where each fair can bring best of shows in the adult division and in the youth exhibits and enter it into the statewide competition," Pitzer said.
"This year we were fortunate enough that Jennifer won the best of show in category three which is the larger fairs in the adult division. We are always competitive in that."
New for the fair this year was a first-time entry division to encourage people to enter exhibits. Looking at the numbers coming in for that it was a good success, Pitzer said.
About 150 people entered exhibits for the first time, he said.
"We were glad to have them and hoping that they will come back next year and participate in the fair," Pitzer said. "But overall we felt good about the exhibits that we had brought in."
Pitzer thanked Wayne County Public Schools and Wayne County Cooperative Extension Service that play a big part in working with the fair to make it a success.
"Of course we get a lot of support from our sponsors and the community, and we appreciate everything they do for coming out and being a part of the fair," he said.
Owned and operated by the Wayne County Livestock Development Association, the 2018 fair will be held Sept. 27 through Oct. 6.
"We are already making plans," Pitzer said. "We have a planning committee scheduled for next week -- kind of looking at what changes we might want to be making and possibly what other improvements we will be wanting to do to the fairgrounds. We are always trying to make it bigger and better. We typically try to look for new entertainment each year. Of course, some of the old favorites we bring back after a couple of years.
"We will look at other entertainment when we attend the International Association of Fairs and Expositions meeting coming up in November in Las Vegas. That is where we go to do a lot of our looking at the entertainment. It is a big conference and involves fairs from all over North America."
One of the improvements this year was new lighting between the midway and rear parking lot.
"Electrical is something that we are always working on because these concessions that come in seem to require more and more power to operate them," he said. "So we are continuously having to upgrade our electrical facilities jut so we can meet some of the demand."
The command center has worked "really good" where the Sheriff's Office, fire and rescue stages, Pitzer said.
"It is manned full time so if an unforeseen accident takes place then we have al of those rescue and emergency services people right there together," he said. "It has worked out really well that they have a place where they can stage and have all of their equipment at that central point."
Pitzer said he did not know of any problems this year and that Powers Great American Midway, which provides the carnival rides, has one of the best safety records in the industry.