“People that have been out here and seen and experienced our new facility, they realize how nice it is. It’s big and open and pretty … It’s just a great facility and I think we get a lot of returning customers because of that,” said Fair Vice President Tim Colston.
He said the fair’s new location provides a few things the South Main Street site in Dayton didn’t, one of the biggest being that it is more ADA compliant, and flatter for people who struggling walking longer distances.
Colston said fair attendance has varied from year to year — it always does depending on weather — and in recent years the comeback from COVID, which canceled the 2020 fair, has made numbers uneven.
For example, 2023′s opening day had only 34,033 paid attendees, down from 41,022 in 2022. But attendance the third day of the 2023 fair was 26,070, compared with only 15,078 in 2022. Attendance was hindered in 2021 by a rainy week, and possibly by continuing COVID concerns.
The former fairgrounds site held 164 Montgomery County Fairs through 2017.
“I don’t have exact numbers (from 2017 and before) but we are trending up from 2018 at the new fairgrounds,” Colston said.
When the fair opened in its new location in 2018, there was an increase of 13,000 people. That number grew in 2019. 2021 saw a slight decrease in attendance post COVID-19, but climbed back up again in 2022 and 2023.
Since the switch, the goal of the fair has been to educate, provide entertainment, and support community members, from a new, larger location. The new fairgrounds has plenty of room inside and out for activities.
“I think everyone is pleasantly surprised when they walk through the gates ... pleasantly surprised when they come through Arthur O. Fisher park and see what a nice area it is,” Colston said.
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