Amusements of America provided the midway at Ohio State Fair, with the carnival grossing more than $2.1 million this year. The fair provides a fireworks display each night to send off guests with a bang.
The Ohio State Fair set another attendance record this year with 916,724 visitors between July 23 and Aug. 3. The event’s 161st installment topped the record-breaking 2013 figure of 908,824 guests by 1.5 percent.
“The weather cooperated quite well,” said Virgil Strickler, the fair’s general manager. “We had a couple rainy Saturdays, which doesn’t help us, but everybody seemed to be coming to the fair and realizing that we’re doing some things different every year. We’re very thankful.”
The 2014 theme—“the fairest of them all”—sent a whimsical message, appropriating language from folklore into the fair’s marketing. In February of last year, the organizers asked followers of the fair’s social media accounts to share their “fairy” tales, or memories that make the event special to them. Organizers then chose particularly compelling or unique stories and had the fans tell them on the fair’s radio and television commercials.
“It was really kind of a neat way to share people’s favorite fair memories,” explained Alicia Shoults, the fair’s marketing and public relations director. “We didn’t use any actors in our commercials this year.”
John Stamos joins The Beach Boys' Mike Love on stage at the Celeste Center, the Ohio State Fair's indoor, air-conditioned concert venue.
New in promotions, the fair introduced an Ohio State Fair Senior Day. In the past few years, Shoults explained, the fair has hosted unofficial senior days. This year, the official Ohio State Fair Senior Day which took place July 29, offering admission to attendees ages 60-plus for a discounted $4, all day. “We saw Senior Day gate admission up 324 percent and advanced sales to senior groups up by 25 percent,” Shoults said. “We’re certainly planning to capitalize on that for future fairs.” In addition to the discount, special activities and entertainment were geared toward seniors that day, including a free Frank Sinatra tribute performed by Rick Michel.
Additional entertainment throughout the fair’s run included a variety of acts spread across genres. A few highlights were Lady Antebellum with special guest Joe Nichols, which grossed $364,350; the Beach Boys in America, which grossed $204,330; Heart and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, which grossed $276,012; and Aretha Franklin, who pulled in $153,160. The fair spent a total of $1,048,282 on talent for paid concerts, which also included acts such as Boyz II Men, Bachman and Turner, Scotty McCreery, Jesus Culture and McClain. The Sinatra tribute talent was also included in that figure although it was a free show for visitors.
“We had a really good year with our concerts,” said Entertainment Director Brett Chance. “Things were up all around the fair.”
The fair had a couple of last-minute swaps on the concert lineup, including a Beatles tribute band that stepped in for a mixed martial arts show that was canceled. Another challenge he mentioned was that country music festivals are gaining popularity and making it more difficult to book country acts. “It’s great for the fans, but for other venues that are trying to book [artists], it takes a lot of them out of the market,” Chance said. “The bigger acts bring along some of the top opening acts or others that would be good supporting acts for us, and there are radius clauses and everything. So we’ve got to get started early, and we’ve already started to look at things for next year.”
Lady Antebellum performs to a crowd of more than 8,000 at Celeste Center at Ohio State Fair.
In addition to concerts, fair goers enjoyed carnival offerings from Amusements of America. The midway grossed $2,114,326.
Of course, one of the biggest attractions was the concessions, which grossed $4,619,523. About 189 vendors descended on the fairgrounds and among them, the Bubba’s Bacon stand was one of the most popular. “He had everything bacon … bacon on a stick, bacon popcorn, bacon burgers and different flavors of bacon,” Shoults said. “The booth was swarmed the entire fair.”
Dickerson & Kenna was another buzzed-about vendor, for its Sloppy Donut. Similar to other sandwiches that use a doughnut as a bun, the Sloppy Donut was filled with barbecue pulled pork, bacon, cheese and deep-fried pickle chips. “You can’t get a Sloppy Donut anywhere but the fair,” Shoults added.
The fair also had some new sponsors this year. Jo-Ann Fabric sponsored the creative arts contest building as well as a handmade craft area, and outfitters Cabela’s sponsored a retriever dog show. The new film, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” brought in a popular photo booth that allowed fairgoers to take a picture against a green screen that superimposed the cast of “Guardians of the Galaxy” into the photo.
The dates for next year’s fair will be July 29 through Aug. 9, 2015, but besides timing, there have been no other plans set in stone just yet. “We were planning during the fair, trying to figure out what some of the new things would be,” Strickler said. “But we haven’t had those meetings yet. … we just keep, each year, trying to be better at being there for our visitors.”
Interviewed for this story: Brett Chance, (614) 644-4126; Alicia Shoults and Virgil Strickler, (614) 644-4000