Walworth County Fair officials expect boost in attendance
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Kadir Ozdemir installs colorful flags on top of a food trailer at the Walworth County Fairgrounds on Friday. The annual event at the Elkhorn fairgrounds kicks off next Wednesday.
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Bob Handel
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Duane D. Katzman
ELKHORN — The Walworth County Fair hasn’t been an exception to those stung by the Great Recession.
But while businesses close their doors or restructure to maintain fiscal health, officials in Elkhorn are talking expansion and remain hopeful this year the economic pendulum begins to swing back in their direction.
Attendance at the 2009 fair was its lowest in nearly 30 years and down more than 21 percent from its all-time high in 2000.
Bob Handel, vice president of the Walworth County Fair Board, said he believes more than 160,000 people will attend this year’s fair, which would be the most since 2005.
“The economy is still struggling, and if anything it’s probably tougher than a year ago,” Handel said. “We’re kind of hanging on and not knowing what to expect.”
Handel admitted he’s concerned about the attendance, but they’ve been taking steps for years to maintain the fair’s quality.
More than 400 people from various organizations volunteer each year, allowing the fair to keep few people on salary, and Handel said they’ve upgraded the electrical and water systems to lower utility costs.
To ensure the future development of the fairgrounds, the Walworth County Agricultural Society in 2001 created a foundation to oversee an endowment fund to grow the fair and its facilities. It has led the fair’s fundraising efforts and maintains about $265,000 in assets, said Duane “Skip” Katzman, the foundation’s president.
“It is difficult right now, and I think you talk with any fundraising group and people aren’t quite as loose with their pocketbooks,” Katzman said.
Ideally, the foundation would control about $500,000 in assets to fund new projects, he added.
Expansion is a difficult concept for most organizations, but the Walworth County Fair has been vital to the local economy, making it a necessary investment, Handel said.
An economic impact study released earlier this year showed more than $6.3 million flows through Walworth County because of the fair. Handel estimated about 80 percent of that comes directly from the six-day county fair.
Katzman said the fair owns about 100 acres of land, and has enough space for development. They’ve discussed a youth building and expanding administrative offices, which Katzman said are too small.
“Down the road, I think we’re going to have some things happen that the foundation has worked very hard on,” Handel said. “There are some people out there that will eventually make a major gift, and if that happens, I don’t know when, but that will allow us (to expand).”
First, fair officials are focused on emerging from the recession.
Handel has discussed attendance with other fair officials around the state to try and predict what’s to come this week. They said turnouts this year aren’t much different from the year before.
But the Wisconsin State Fair this year had a 5 percent increase in attendance, leaving Handel hopeful Wisconsin’s largest county fair will follow the same course.
“We kind of hoped it was probably due to the economy, so we felt that if we’re able to hold (attendance) reasonably close to the previous year, we’ll be pretty happy with the results.”
Aug 31, 2010 at 11:07 a.m.
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No Spark this isn't grade school, and Mouse didn't start it YOU did! Enough already.
Aug 31, 2010 at 8:32 a.m.
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No I wasn't telling you what to wear for school.
Though I bet you were a dandy!
Aug 31, 2010 at 8:17 a.m.
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Mouse - This isn't grade school.
Aug 31, 2010 at 8:12 a.m.
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Calm down Spark! Go get some coffee, but strap it on first. Oh and maybe wear blaze orange and a blaze vest and helmet.
Aug 31, 2010 at 8:03 a.m.
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Mouse - Thank you for staying at home. The world has enough prudes.
Aug 31, 2010 at 7:57 a.m.
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Which pen will we find you displayed in Spark?
Aug 31, 2010 at 7:53 a.m.
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And Mouse speaks again. Don't worry, the big bad open carry people won't hurt you. You can crawl out from under your sheets now. Or are you just going to post something about open carry on every story even though it has nothing to do with it?
Aug 31, 2010 at 7:37 a.m.
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Will open carry cowboys and girls be allowed? Will not attend if this is the case.
Aug 31, 2010 at 7:05 a.m.
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I just want to let you know that there will be parking all week across the highway at the old greenhouse. Yes, you will have to pay, but the parking fee will go to a different non-profit organization each day. At least you know your $5 is helping a person that needs it.
Aug 30, 2010 at 4:55 p.m.
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I definitely will not be taking my family to the fair this year. That's a loss of 4 people right there. I believe going from $0 to $5 for parking is ridiculous! Especially in a time when people are already struggling. Between the cost of wristbands, the increase in admission price, and the parking charge I just cannot afford it. Sadly this will be our first time missing the fair.
Aug 30, 2010 at 1:48 p.m.
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That's too bad. I always enjoyed this Fair. Sorry, not this year.
Aug 30, 2010 at 12:53 p.m.
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For a single person, $9 for admission and $5 for parking means that their cost of attendance has doubled in two years! My own little straw poll of fair-goers suggests that this year's attendance will drop significantly. Out of six perennially regular fair-goers, one is a "maybe" and the other five are "not a chance".
Aug 30, 2010 at 11:55 a.m.
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I would like to see the fair start earlier, why should the School Districts work around the fair.
I'm not for it but one thing that would really help them out would be a Beer tent. They would have it on the other side of the Fair grounds, and each night they could have bands. They can only drink in side of the tent. Also charge a fee when bands are playing. You see more and more Fairs doing this, they could make more money and not have to charge a parking fee.
This fair grounds is so old they need to do some major up dating real soon. They need to make it so some of the building can be used year around for party's or to store boats or cars in them.
They poorly invested the money years ago. now we are paying for it.
Aug 30, 2010 at 11:17 a.m.
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DJ, they hold the fair every year the week coming into Labor Day. Unfortunately, many area schools have begun having the school year start that same week, though I know Delavan-Darien only has class Wednesday and Thursday for some unfathomable reason. Not sure if the other districts are doing that as well this year.
I agree the parking fees are likely to negatively impact overall attendance. I know my family is probably not going to attend the fair this year because of it. Sure, it is only $5 but one of the big draws in years past, from listening to folks talk about the fair, was that there was no charge for parking, unlike most if not all other area fairs. The low overall cost of the fair is what appealed to many area people. Sure, everything goes up in price as years go by but this is a big jump for a lot of people.
Aug 30, 2010 at 9:17 a.m.
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We go every year and every day. Some days we leave the fair during the day and come back at night. The $5.00 parking is not a good idea to try out when people are already struggling and will defiantly hurt sales. It will change how often this family visits this year, and cause some to not return next year. Once you loose a customer it is very costly to advertise to lure them back. When you Start to Nickel and Dime people and they will go the route of least resistance and stay home.
I does not help that Walworth County Schools all start on the day the fair starts. Hello school board anyone home?
Aug 30, 2010 at 5:45 a.m.
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we were going to go this year until we seen the the price increase this year.
1) Parking $5.00 they never did this before
2) wrist band night is $5.00 more ( but this is not the fairs issue)
Also the nights we were going to go they say its going to rain. Bob the big reason the State Fair had more people this, they had special discount days. They didn't do nothing what you did with your prices so I wouldn't even put your self next to the State Fair.
Aug 29, 2010 at 8:06 p.m.
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Why do they hold this at a time when so many schools will be back in session?
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