Dark Clouds Dampen Fair Attendance

The Clark County Fair and Rodeo made its much anticipated appearance last week, April 9-12. But due to an unfortunate conjunction of several elements including a bad economy, a holiday weekend and, perhaps most importantly, cold and rainy weather, attendance at the Fair plummetted this year.

Fair officials reported that attendance this year was down 22.5% from last year. This year an estimated 65,000 people attended the Fair. Last year the Fair broke its attendance records with nearly 84,000 people in attendance.

Robison was depending on strong attendance during those first two days. He expected a light Sunday attendance, due to the Easter holiday. “Last time the Fair fell on the Easter weekend, we picked up a lot of attendance on Thursday and Friday but Sunday fell off,” Robison said. “We were headed that same direction this year as well.”

But then, Mother Nature played a wild card. Late Friday night a storm rolled in and rain started to fall. That weather system stalled right on top of the Moapa Valley all day long Saturday causing a steady drizzle throughout the day. The last time that the Fair had a rainy Saturday was in 1994.

The result was that Saturday’s Fair attendance almost disappeared. Having a bad Saturday is catastrophic for an event like the Fair. “I’ve always said that just one bad weather Saturday could just about bankrupt us,” Robison said. “Unfortunately, we just can’t control a rainy day.”

The clouds cleared up for a beautiful sunny Easter Sunday. Despite this, the holiday also kept people at home and Fair attendance was down, as expected.

Attendance at the Rodeo was also down sharply this year. Robison estimated that about 1,000 less people attended the four day rodeo event than in year’s past. “Our rodeo contestant numbers were still high, though” Robison said. “We had the same number of contestants as last year with a total payout of $240,000.”

Thursday’s concert event featuring country music superstar Heidi Newfield also saw light attendance. “It was a great show but not very well attended,” Robison said.

These things, Robison attributed to the soft economy. “Our numbers indicate that people came to the Fair but they were conservative this year,” Robison said. Food vendors sales were also off by 30-40% according to initial numbers. “People were just spending less money,” Robison said.

Added all together, the conditions this year gives the Clark County Fair a serious financial hit. “This one will likely get pretty ugly,” Robison said. “We are anticipating a six-digit loss this year.”

The Fair’s total budget is $1,040,000. Ticket sales were anticipated to bring in $525,000. But, instead, the Fair only saw about $450,000 in ticket sales. Poor attendance has a rippling effect throughout all of the other revenue sources for the Fair, Robison said.

While the Fair has the ability to weather the storm, Robison said that this year is really going to hurt. Over the past 17 year period, the Fair has averaged a net profit of only about $12,000 per year. That profit is put into an aptly named “rainy day account” to brace for years like this one.

Robison said that the Fair went into this year with about $200,000 in cash reserves. But with the kind of loss experienced this year, that cash will evaporate pretty fast leaving very little operating funds.

“Now we just have to get back up, dust ourselves off and figure out how to get back on our feet again,” Robison said.