Fairgoers smile wide for a picture at the Washington State Fair, Puyallup, which enjoyed its highest-grossing grandstand and food sales at this year's fair.
The Washington State Fair, Puyallup, drew more than a million people during its Sept. 5-21 run. In keeping with last year’s policy shift toward phasing out reports of specific attendance, however, Fair CEO Kent Hojem declined to give one again this year. He did confirm that this year’s numbers were up from last year, when opening day rain resulted in lower attendance to kick off the 2013 fair.
“We aren’t reporting our specific attendance numbers, but we did have more than a million people visit this year’s fair,” said Hojem, which he added was blessed with beautiful weather.
Hojem declined to offer specific operating expense figures and overall profits for this year’s fair as well but did say that this was a very good year in terms of net revenues. “We’re seeing a budgetary increase in terms of revenues over expenditures of over 100 percent,” said Hojem. “It’s a big change between 2013 and 2014.”
Hojem estimated that about $1 million in extra expenses were incurred last year by the official change of the fair name from the Western Washington Fair to the Washington State Fair and not having nearly as much of that expense this year made a big difference.
“We’ve made that change and now we’re taking care of that rebranding,” said Hojem. “For sure, being in the second year of a rebranding definitely relieves some of the budget stress.”
Hojem also declined to use specific figures for other fair elements but did talk in terms of comparison with previous year’s fair numbers. “Grandstand sales amounted to $400,000 more than last year’s gross, the highest in the existence of the fair. The food gross was the highest ever by about 15-17 percent, about $300,000 dollars more than the previous high set several years ago. And that was especially meaningful for us because we didn’t see any significant price increases in product and even had minor drops in a few cases. So to see a gross that big without a lot of increases, and some decreases, is really significant. The ride gross was also an all-time high.”
This year’s fair had a number of new attractions including the Vision Dome – 360° Cinematic Journey, which offered three different domes, each incorporating 360-degree motion capture techniques on massive screens that covered the interior of each dome. The largest dome showed images of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Pyramids, and Machu Picchu, among other remarkable sights. Another screened extreme outdoor sports footage and one presented an interactive 3D game.
Other new offerings this year were The Ultimate Tailgate event which included showing Seattle Seahawks football games on 25 large screens located around the fair; other Seahawks-related exhibits and special deals; the Fair Game Sports Bar; and the U.S. Open/Chambers Bay Exhibit, which celebrated the upcoming 2015 U.S. Open golf tournament to be held at Chambers Bay in Pierce County, Wash., the prestigious event’s first time to be played in the Pacific Northwest.
Once again, Portland, Ore.-based Funtastic Shows Inc. operated more than 70 midway rides at the fair.
“We had a great fair,” said Ron Burback, owner of the carnival operation. “We had great weather. We had point-of-purchases on the opening weekend, which was something new. Another special deal that has been around a while, but has grown tremendously, offers 120 tickets for $50. That became 65 percent of our ticket sales. That’s B-I-G!”
Funtastic Shows Inc. provided a carnival with over 70 rides, so everyone could join in the fun.
Regular fair gate admission tickets for the 2014 fair were $12.50 for adults, $9 for students 6-18 years old and for seniors aged 62 and up, but prefair purchase opportunities brought it down to $10 and $7.50. Many other discount programs and specials brought ticket prices down, as well. Kids 5 years and younger are always free.
Hojem described The Grandstand entertainment lineup for 2014 and the attendance to the 19 major musical performances and one comic act as “outstanding.”
All of the main concerts took place at the 9,700-seat Northwest Concert Center, an outdoor covered grandstand with an open infield. The venue had 10,000 seats until last year when larger seats were put in the infield for the 2013 fair, cutting down the total chair number by 300.
“Toby Keith was, for all intents and purposes a sellout, with only the small number of 'trouble seats' vacant,” said Hojem. “Florida Georgia Line was a sellout, ventriloquist/comedian Jeff Dunham was close to a sellout. Chicago and REO Speedwagon did a joint performance for the first time and sold well.”
Other concerts at the 2014 Washington State Fair featured entertainers including Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland and Brandy Clark, Fallout Boy & New Politics, Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant, Dallas Smith, and others. Oldies rock acts Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone, The Grass Roots and The Buckinghams also performed a show together.
“Two huge surprises I just have to mention,” said Hojem,“ Lindsey Sterling, a YouTube sensation who dances and plays electronic violin, and Pentatonix, a five-person a cappella group. They may not necessarily be readily familiar to people out there across all genres but boy did they do well for us.”
Hojem said neither Sterling nor Pentatonix was a sellout but both had “strong sales.”
There were five musical performances during the Justin Boots Playoffs rodeo, the event which, along with its accompanying Western Rodeo Parade, traditionally kicks off the fair. Musical performers for the rodeo played to a 6,000-seat venue that had limited additional stand-only space available, some of which was used, according to Hojem. The headliner Friday night was Clay Walker and Saturday night featured Colt Ford.
“We were happy with both of those shows,” noted Hojem. “Both did very well.”
Ticket prices for most of the musical performances were $30 to $75 and, for headliners, $40 to $95.
A planned concert by Keith Urban was postponed due to a death in the family. It was rescheduled to Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015, during next year’s fair.
The 2014 Washington State Fair had one big new sponsor, which Hojem singled out. “Our most significant new sponsor was Tractor Supply, a nationwide chain of farm supply stores,” said Hojem. “They sponsored Tractor Tracks, a free attraction for children featuring a pedal tractor obstacle course.”
He also mentioned Sleep Country, which sponsored the ShowPlex; Columbia Bank, sponsors of the Concert series and the new Blue Couch Lounge; Coke, the exclusive soft drink sponsor and sponsor of the Coke Stage; and rodeo sponsor O’Reilly Auto Parts.
Once again, fair officials strove to encourage attendance by Seattleites. Fair spokesperson Karen LaFlamme described a marketing campaign that took place at Seattle’s iconic Pike Place Market.
“From Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, we had a 10x20 booth at Pike Place Market that not only provided info for the folks going through, but also our artificial cow Mabel along with someone dressed up as a farmer to show people how a cow is milked,” explained LaFlamme. “To make it fun and bring people in, we dressed the cow up in a different costume every day. We had three days devoted to sports, one for the Seattle Seahawks, one for University of Washington Huskies and one for Washington State University Cougars. And other days we had other costumes sprinkled in. We provided randomly some gate tickets to people every now and then. The response was extremely positive and it got some media coverage.”
Fair officials also utilized revived transportation options that alleviated traffic and driving worries for many nonlocal visitors. Located on 169-plus acres some 35 miles south of Seattle, the fair partnered with Seattle-based Sound Transit beginning last year to run the Sounder Express Train to the fair. Hojem admitted that it did not receive a particularly enthusiastic response from Washingtonians last year but said this year was much better, attributing the increased participation in the Sounder run to a greater awareness of its state fair rides and because of the ever-increasing freeway traffic.
The Sounder serves nine stations between Everett, Seattle and Sumner, with direct service to the Puyallup Sounder Station. It was available, however, only two days of the fair run – the middle Saturday and the last Saturday – because it is used for commuters Monday through Friday and is under contract with the Seahawks and the Mariners sports teams on Sundays. Hojem said more than 2,100 fair visitors traveled on the Sounder on the middle Saturday and more than 1,900 the last Saturday.
The Pierce Transit Fair Express bus also ran from the South Sound area, including Tacoma, every day of the fair following a four-year fair-service hiatus.
“Seattle and points north are an important population center for us,” noted Hojem. “But we take seriously our rebranding – from the Puyallup Fair to the Washington State Fair. We’re trying to appeal to all sectors of the Washington population out there. Certainly Seattle, Bellevue, Everett and other points north, but also east of the mountain, southwest Washington, southeast Washington. We’re really making efforts to appeal to everybody across the state.”
Washingtonians are warming up to the the fair's recent name change in its second year as the Washington State Fair.
In its second year to be known as the Washington State Fair, rather than by its longtime moniker as the Western Washington Fair, Hojem indicated that most people seem to have accepted the name change. Initially, there had been some pushback from Puyallup residents.
“I think there was a lessening of the pushback against it,” said Hojem. “For some local folks, this place will always be the Puyallup Fair, which it was called for so long. It’s what they grew up with, it’s what they’re used to, it’s pride in one’s hometown – and that’s okay. But I think over time even locals will be just as proud to be from the home of the Washington State Fair as they were to be from the home of the Puyallup Fair.”
The fair’s name has changed through the century of its existence. It began in 1900 as the Valley Fair. The name was changed to the Western Washington Fair in 1913 to demonstrate a wider geographical identity. In the early 1970s, a very effective ad campaign used the tag line “Do the Puyallup,” as well as a jingle. That caught on and, though it remained officially the Western Washington Fair, it was designated doing business as the Puyallup Fair. Now it is the Washington State Fair but organizers continue to use “Do The Puyallup” in its marketing products.
The 17-day Washington State Fair is the largest fair in the Pacific Northwest and the single largest attended event in the state of Washington. It is a private, not-for-profit, 501-C3 corporation and one of two major annual fairs held at the state fair facility. The four-day Spring Fair is held in April.
In addition to the already scheduled Keith Urban show for the 2015 Washington State Fair, Hojem said next year’s fair will offer some surprises.
“Safe to say there will be at least one if not multiple special attractions, like this year’s Vision Dome 360, next year,” said Hojem. “We plan to make some changes within the fairgrounds this year in terms of capital projects but exactly which ones remain to be seen.”
Last year one of the old wooden barns on the fairgrounds burned down right after the Spring Fair. That area is one that Hojem and his team are targeting for a new structure to replace it but they are still debating on exactly what that’s going to look like.
“That will certainly be one of the changes,” confirmed Hojem.
Interviewed for this story: Kent Hojem and Karen LaFlamme, (253) 841-5024; Ron Burback, (503) 761-0989