Beautiful weather and a little help from the Starship Enterprise helped push attendance up slightly by 2.1 percent at the Arizona State Fair, Phoenix, with an attendance of 1,178,505 over last year’s 1,154,271, said assistant executive director Kristi Walsh.
A traveling exhibit produced by EMS Marketing, “Star Trek: The Exhibition,” billed as the largest collection of “Star Trek” memorabilia, drew in fairgoers who paid $5 above their gate tickets to see such items as phasers on display and to maybe take a ride in a “Star Trek” spaceflight motion simulator that allowed participants to go up against a Borg attack and get bounced around inside a shuttlecraft that displays animated computer graphics.
Laveen, Ariz.-based Ray Cammack Shows placed 70 rides on the midway and was up, but Walsh said the fair does not release by how much.
New rides included Insanity, Quad Runners, VW Bugs and a Mach 1, Walsh said. Pay-one-price wristbands were available only on Thursdays for $30, and on Sundays for $35. However, a switch to an electronic ticketing system put a bit of a damper on some ticket sales.
“Our Internet sales were lower than previous years due to going on sale very late,” Walsh said. “We did a ticketing system Request for Proposals (RFP) that delayed our normal process. Next year, tickets will be on sale earlier.”
The fair, held Oct. 11 to Nov. 3 with Mondays and Tuesdays off, switched to Morrisville, N.C.-based Etix for both on-site sales and electronic commerce, Walsh said.
“We had been using three separate ticketing systems and, as we approached the end of one of the contracts, it was in the agency’s best interest to combine as many systems as possible into one for consolidated reporting purposes, lowering ticket costs and ease of use both internally and externally,” Walsh said.
This year, fair officials were able to replace only the on-site sales and e-commerce systems, but will add reserved concert seating into the mix next year.
“The plethora of information available is astounding,” Walsh said. “We can pull reports with almost any kind of data to use in our financial operations and the data is also real time. So at any given point, we can look up how many people have come through the gates before a certain time.
“It has saved employees lots of time through reconciliations and ease of use such as that more people can use the system.”
Gate admission cost $10 for adults, and $5 for children and senior citizens, the same as last year.
No musical acts sold out the 14,500-seat Veterans Memorial Coliseum, but acts that did well, the attendance figure and ticket price, included ZZ Top, 12,500, $20 ticket; Billy Currington, 10,000, $20; and Old School Jam featuring Zapp, Sugar Hill Gang, and Grandmasters Furious Five featuring Melle Mel, Rob Base, Candyman, Mellow Man Ace, 10,000, $15.
Other acts and ticket prices included Trace Adkins, $20; Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, $15; The Wanted, $20; Prince Royce Sun, $20; Snoop Dogg aka Snoop Lion, $20; Alabama Shakes, $15; Zendaya, $15; Jerry Lewis, $15; Megadeth, $20; and Kidz Bop Kids, $15.
Although fairgoers could pay for reserved tickets, they also could get general admission seating free.
Walsh declined to give out entertainment, marketing or overall budget figures.
In marketing, fair officials dramatically cut back print ad buys in order to focus on digital as well as other methods of advertising, including at Sky Harbor Airport baggage claim because of how busy the airport is, on Pandora Internet Radio and outdoor displays.
“This was the first year we made hard cuts to our print budget allocation,” Walsh said. “Print demographics in this market are starting to decline and our goal this year was to reach a fresh, new audience who would hopefully incorporate a fair tradition into their lives.”
The outdoor displays included strategically-placed, colorful billboards as well as advertising on a video screen at a local mall.
Fair officials have been collecting statistics but, anecdotally, the new methods of advertising appear to have been successful.
“A lot of people, unsolicited, mentioned all of those new buys to us, some asking how much we spent, so they could run their business ads on there, too.”
The fair continued its social media program of providing information, giveaways and interaction with fairgoers, including asking them to draw the fair’s mascot, Martha Midway.
“We had some very creative drawings,” Walsh said.
When it came to food, bacon was the word, with one stand called Bacon-A-Fair completely devoted to it. Items included cheesy bacon bombs and anything wrapped, crusted or flavored with bacon.
“Another stand even had bacon-flavored cotton candy,” Walsh said.
Next year’s dates are tentatively Oct. 10-Nov. 2.
Interviewed for this article: Kristi Walsh, (602) 257-7161