Big Tex watches over the crowd at the 2016 State Fair of Texas, Dallas.
Throughout the live entertainment industry, security has been top of mind in 2016, as the horror of terrorist attacks during events increases worldwide. Fairs are no exception.
Not only did an increasing number of the largest fairs in North America install magnetometers this year, or will in 2017, but now, like arena managers, fair managers report the response from patrons as positive, not irritated.
“We’re beefing up our entry security,” said Rick Vymlatil, South Florida Fair, West Palm Beach. “As of this fair, we’ll have walkthrough magnetometers. We tried it at a Latin Festival in September and the general reaction was positive. People said thank you for doing this.” They also installed a surveillance camera at the gates. “We have no choice,” Vymlatil said of today’s security issues.
Fairs also celebrated first responders and law enforcement in a way only such community-centric events can. Mike Froehlich, York (Pa.) Fair, said that event promoted a Salute to Our Heroes Day, complete with a parade, on Sept. 11. Military, police and first responders were honored. The region has 40-50 volunteer fire departments that participated. “Everyone loves a parade,” Froehlich said.
Cumulative attendance at the Top 50 Fairs in North America is 2016 held steady, at just north of 44 million, the same as last year. Of the 50 fairs charted, 25 reported increases in attendance, 23 were down and two were about the same.
A spectacular increase of 62 percent was reported by the State Fair of Louisiana, Shreveport, which suffered a horrible spate of bad weather — beyond bad — in 2015.
The carnival gross for Crabtree Amusements was up 96 percent, said Chris Giordano, GM of the State Fair of Louisiana. Giordano is very optimistic for 2017, but he is considering some major changes after next year’s fair, like going back to 11 days. He has been a three-week fair, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, for years. In 2016, he opened Tuesdays as well, to make up for the disastrous 2015, but it wears out the staff and the carnival. “I think we could get the same revenue in 11 days,” he said, adding that research is pending. That’s just his gut feeling.
Weather is the great equalizer for outdoor events and the South Florida Fair, West Palm Beach, was among the many that took the hit this year. Vymlatil said nine of the 17 days of his fair featured rain and “it’s tough to recover from that,” but, wonder of wonders, “financially we should have a good result.”
He admits to being shocked after the fair to learn “we did that good,” but he was able to proceed with planned improvements he truly believed would have to be put on hold because of the rainy fair. “We had a wonderful turnout,” he said of those who did come. “It reinforced the fact that the fair is going to do all right unless some oddball, crazy thing happens,” Vymlatil said, referring to the other ogre in the room with rain, terrorism and catastrophe.
Improvements to the South Florida Fair, which will greet fairgoers next month, include repaving the entire midway, at a cost of $500,000, which will be great for Wade Shows. That bit of deferred maintenance has been on hold since 1980. Last year, they added a brand new, $4 million operations building, the first non-revenue producing build he can recall. It includes the board members’ hospitality room, lost and found, lost kids, first aid and all of operations. “We took a page out of Miami-Dade’s playbook, putting everything in one place,” Vymlatil said.
Daytime heat and nighttime storms cost the Oklahoma State Fair about 10 percent of its attendance. But like Vymlatil, the fair’s Scott Munz said life goes on. The fairgrounds are the year-round horse show capital of the world, he said. They are just completing a $56-million project, the Bennett Events Center, which hosts its first event Jan. 21-22.
The fair business is no longer a one-event business, he said, citing statistics from 2015 that show Fair Park hosted 185 events, 2,493 event days, drawing 2.1 million people to the grounds. The economic impact on Oklahoma City was $325 million, Munz said.
At the Louisiana State Fair, Giordano has leased Hirsch Coliseum to Encompass Sports Management to house the North American Hockey League ice hockey team, the Shreveport Mudbugs. They opened their 2016 season there in September, rebranding it George’s Pond at Hirsch Memorial Coliseum. That has definitely improved his bottom line and the coliseum, where they invested $2.5 million in exchange for a long-term lease.
THE CONTENT BUSINESS
One-of-a-kind, you-can-only-see-it-here is the formula for The Fair at Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver, British Columbia. This year, the fair hosted the North American debut of Angry Birds Universe from Imagine Exhibitions, said Laura Ballance, marketing/media relations for the PNE. In 2017, they are gearing up to help celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday with something unique.
They like to couple something unique with something local, and this year they continued to showcase Vancouver’s craft beer, a hit with the 20-35-year-old demographic.
The fair has a creative director who is out looking for firsts in Canada and firsts in North America to produce and showcase, Ballance said. “Our core demographic is 2-92. Our industry is everyone.” The challenge is to find just the right foundational piece, which shakes up the complacent attitude that the fair will always be there, if we don’t go this year, we’ll go next year.
Edu-tainment is a continuing hallmark of fairs, particularly as it relates to agriculture. Sharon Altman, Pennsylvania Farm Show, Harrisburg, said the 100th edition of that free event included history walls throughout the complex showing the history of the show, the history of the farm in terms of equipment and commodities and historical comparisons. “The Farm Show was created to educate,” she said. The theme next year will be Farm Show 101, and it will feature an education stage.
The Big Fresno (Calif.) County Fair created the Fresno County Historical Museum last year, documenting the history of the entire valley and taking education beyond agriculture.
Froehlich said York Fair is looking at forming a junior fair board to get more youth involved.
Denny Lang, Erie County Fair, Hamburg, N.Y., agrees fairs must do a better job of promoting agriculture and educating youth. That is the mission. “People want to be educated as well as entertained,” Lang said.
For him, the fair is definitely not about the grandstand talent and, after a few years of cancelations, he’s seriously considering adding another motocross series and more free-with-admission entertainment in 2017, instead of so much name talent.
Vymlatil pointed to social media as the biggest trend he sees in the fair industry. “The impact it has had on events like ours and life in general is huge,” he said. “It’s a great tool.”
He is particularly fascinated with geofencing.
California State Fair, Sacramento, knows all about trends and crazes. This year, they cashed in on Pokémon Go. Fair staff walked the grounds activating “lures” designed to increase the likelihood of Pokémon appearing for guests to capture. These activations were announced across the state fair’s social media platforms, notifying guests when and where they were to occur. This level of niche guest attention helped the California State Fair become the most ‘liked’ fair in the western United States with 184,355 likes, in addition to their 9,613 Twitter and 7,046 Instagram followers.
“Someone once stated that conducting the Illinois State Fair consisted of 15 percent planning and 85 percent weather, and after this year’s fair, I tend to believe it,” said Manager Kevin Gordon. While the Springfield, Ill., event suffered triple digit heat, power outages and rain, it still posted the highest grossing grandstand lineup in fair history.
Bottom line, the Top 50 Fairs in North America have and will beat the odds for outdoor events, and everyone will be more secure being there.
Interviewed for this story: Rick Vymlatil, (561) 790-5207; Chris Giordano, (318) 635-1361; Mike Froehlich, (717) 848-2596; Laura Ballance, (604) 637-6646; Sharon Altman, (717) 787-5373; Kevin Gordon, (217) 782-6661; Denny Lang, (716) 649-3900