2016 Colorado State Fair attendance hits five year low
Over the course of the past five years the average number of visitors was 483,477 — putting the 2016 total attendance far below the median.
Attendance at this year’s Colorado State Fair was down dramatically from 2015, and even sunk below attendance numbers from 2012.
The fair reported 466,576 attendees this year, down 6.7 percent from the 500,207 attendees last year. In 2012, there were 474,914 visitors.
Over the course of the past five years the average number of visitors was 483,477 — putting the 2016 total attendance far below the median.
Despite the notable decline, the fair’s general manager Sarah Cummings said there were some positives to come out of the 11-day event.
“There are a number of ways to evaluate the success of a fair. Overall attendance is one measure; revenues, intrinsic value and customer experience are other valuable measures. Preliminary figures reflect increases in carnival revenue and admission paid at the gate,” Cummings in a released statement.
“More importantly, there is an overwhelming buzz regarding the positive experience our customers had while attending the Colorado State Fair — that is the true reward.”
Entertainment was also significantly down from last year. In 2015, approximately 71,200 people attended the entertainment series, which included Tracy Lawrence, Jerrod Niemann, Chase Rice, Three Days Grace, Terry Fator, monster trucks and Los Lonely Boys.
This year 59,000 people attended entertainment events featuring Foreigner, Lee Brice, Travis Tritt, a tribute to the 90’s, monster trucks and a demolition derby.
Cummings told the Pueblo Chieftain that weather was partially due to low attendance during the fair, with forecasts predicting mid-afternoon storms.
“If a big storm or something like that were to happen during the state fair event, we’d take a hit. The event is not the golden ticket,” she told PULP in August.
But there were no sizable storms during the state fair.
The new GM added during a PULP interview that this year’s fair was already pretty much set in place when she arrived in January. Next year’s fair, Cummings said, will have her flair.
The dip in attendance could be the latest hit in a series of controversy in recent years, as some Denver lawmakers believe the event would be more successful in the Denver Metro area.
Last year Colorado Public Radio took on the question of fairness with the fair’s given finances, as several media outlets have questioned whether keeping the fair in Pueblo is smart.
“We’re seeing as possible, a situation where the state fair isn’t going to be sustainable in the future,” says state Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton. He serves on the legislative audit committee and is concerned about the fair’s annual shortfall, some $3.3 million last year — or a fraction of that, depending on who does the accounting.
Last year the fair asked for approximately $550,000 from the state to balance the fair’s budget, but made the case that the event is a money maker, while the grounds’ finances are the problem, the Denver Post reported.
And you don’t get a full picture of the fair’s value just by looking at what it costs onsite. In 2011, an economic impact study concludedColorado gets a $33.8 million economic benefit from the Fair each year, plus the equivalent of 374 full-time jobs. The study indicated about $24.6 million of that impact is in Pueblo County, an area of the state that lawmakers have said is lagging in the economic recovery.
