Preliminary figures show daily attendance grew by six-and-a-half percent for this year’s
fair. In fact, more people showed up overall to play games, enjoy rides and sample fried treats than last year, despite the fact that this year’s fair was a day shorter. More than 697,000 turned out; up about 4,000 from last year. Saturday there were over 80,000 people at the fair, making it one of the top ten days in the past ten years.
There were a few setbacks, including a malfunctioning monorail that stranded 38 passengers, though all were safely rescued. A grass fire near downtown didn’t affect fair operations, but it did lead to smoky air.
All of those fair-goers were hungry. People devoured 11-thousand pounds of deep
fried watermelon, 9000 giant turkey legs and about 45-hundred servings of
spaghetti ice cream. And here’s one last figure to ponder: More than 60-thousand
rolls of toilet paper were used during the fair’s 17-day run.