By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Daily paid gate attendance for the 2023 Wood County Fair totaled 32,418 over the eight-day fair, bringing in $324,180 at the gates.
The daily gate attendance total does not include attendance of junior fair board members, people who purchased weekly passes at the gate, exhibitor and membership passes sold in the office, or vendor passes, Secretary-Treasurer Kathy Thomas reported at the November fair board meeting.
From a financial perspective, the weekly passes sold at the gates and the exhibitor, membership and vendor passes that were purchased brought in an additional $80,000, for more than $404,000 in admission revenue.
Thomas explained the figures are based on the online event software that was in place this year, but she could not find any attendance records from the past several years to be able to make any comparisons.
Daily gate admissions ranged from a high of 6,033 on Friday (Aug. 4), the day of the main concert featuring country musicians Craig Morgan and Corbin Easton, to a low of 1,565 on Aug. 6, the final Sunday of the fair.
The other gate admissions numbers (in descending order, with grandstand event listed) included: Saturday (Aug. 5), 5,402, the day of the mini-rod and truck show; Wednesday (Aug. 2), 5,214, demolition derby; Tuesday (Aug. 1), 4,296, multi-vehicle demolition derbies; Thursday (Aug. 3), 3,899, cheer competition; Sunday (July 30), 3,128, junior fair parade/king and queen ceremony; and Monday (July 31), 2,881, harness racing.
The board approved a request from Entertainment Committee Chair David Nietz to spend up to $150,000 to book an act for the main concert. He doesn’t anticipate needing that amount of money, but he said it helps give the committee a cushion during the booking process. They will start discussions for possible acts, but final contracts often are delayed because of routing plans.
The board also approved his request to spend up to $40,000 for side acts on the fairgrounds; $32,500 for other grandstand events; $11,000 for concerts in the Grove; and $1,200 for an announcer during the demolition derbies and county tractor pull.
The Eastwood Athletic Boosters have requested a three-year contract to provide personnel at all of the admission gates during the 2024, 2025 and 2026 fairs. Last year, they staffed a total of 542 shifts, reported Paul Perry, fair board second vice president, who has communicated with the booster organization. The board agreed to pay the boosters $16,000 each year plus an additional 5% of the gate admission revenue over $310,000.
Fair Director Jessica Nagel proposed a change in the multiple-day weekend rental rates for the Junior Fair Building. Currently, the rates are listed at $1,500 for Friday and Saturday, and $1,300 for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which is a problem, she said. The revised rates, for new contracts signed after Jan. 1, 2024, will be $1,400 for Friday and Saturday rentals, and $1,800 for three-day rentals on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Nagel, who is working on the 2024 fair book and 2024 membership tickets, asked the board to decide about prices for next year’s ticket prices. Last year, the cost of the membership and exhibitor tickets was increased from $26 to $30 per person, and the daily gate admission was increased from $7 to $10. The board agreed to leave the prices unchanged for the 2024 fair.
Grounds Committee Chair Matt Zeigler reported the winter storage is almost full with just a few smaller items still coming in. The grounds crew is also working on repairing the parimutuel building, and windows in the middle horse barn and refurbishing a recently acquired trailer.
