IDOA director looks back at last month’s Illinois State Fair

Posted on September 26, 2022
Illinois Department of Agriculture Director Jerry Costello. (Dave Dahl/WJBC)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – The state Department of Agriculture is shedding a little light on how it came up with this year’s attendance numbers for the Illinois State Fair. 

It’s a sophisticated formula under industry-accepted standards, says ag director Jerry Costello.  “The formula and the standards that are used are formulas and standards that are used by the fair industry in general. They’re not just made-up numbers; they are something that we’re very, very reliant on. That’s why the numbers weren’t released earlier. We had audited numbers.”

Legend has it that the fair at one time estimated attendance by weighing the garbage. In the several years since the current standards were adopted, the 2022 fair was a record, approaching 637,000 attendees.

In addition to the work of new fair manager Rebecca Clark and the weather, Costello credited the Pritzker administration’s priority on fixing up the fairgrounds, with newly paved roads and the ongoing coliseum renovation.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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