Attendance up at Illinois State Fair

Posted on August 23, 2019
Illinois State Fairgrounds
Preliminary numbers show around 509,000 people visited the fairgrounds. (Photo courtesy Facebook/Illinois State Fair)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Before the Illinois State Fair began, returning fair manager Kevin Gordon said the turnstile count could top 500,000. Preliminary estimates approach 509,000, up 37 percent from 2018.

But how much does the number really matter?

“Whatever it is, the media likes to ask us a lot,” Illinois Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Krista Lisser said with a laugh. “For us, I think it was really an overall success. We saw the highest grandstand ticket sales (in both tickets sold and revenue) in history this year. That’s a big part of these numbers as well.”

Lisser said while fair officials worked with the ticket sellers and vendors to help determine the estimate, she is unaware of the methodology the previous management used in 2018.

Besides grandstand acts and low admission costs, don’t count out perhaps the most important factor: the weather.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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