By ALYSSA ZERKLE
Moapa Valley Progress
Blue skies and sunny weather for the majority of the Clark County Fair has been rare in recent years. This year’s Fair was fortunate to line up with fairly ideal conditions. The only downfalls this year were some heavy I-15 traffic on Saturday and the strong winds on Sunday.
This year 71,473 people attended the Fair, according to Clark County Fair Event Director, Todd Robison. That was 9% lower than last year’s 78,720 people. The number of people who attended the rodeo this year was 10,213.
The 2008 Fair is still the highest Fair attendance on record with 84,000 people coming through the gates that year, Robison said.
Friday booked a busy attendance day because the well-known country/western band Lonestar gave people an incentive to come and see them perform.
Unfortunately there were a few minor setbacks. Many Las Vegas visitors didn’t make it all the way out to Logandale due to major traffic jams on I-15. Many people complained about how long it took them to navigate the construction areas along the I-15 between Apex and Moapa. Robison suspected that many people ended up turning around and going home rather than brave the traffic.
In addition, the I-15 between Logandale and Mesquite experienced some heavy traffic mid-day on Saturday. Protesters of the BLM roundup operation at the Toquop Wash caused backups for possible Fair visitors coming from Mesquite and Southern Utah.
The weather was picture perfect throughout the weekend except for Sunday. Windy conditions on the Fair’s final day may have hurt the turnout for that day, Robison said.
The Clark County Fair used the carnival company Browns Amusements for the third time this year. The Fair came up with 2 different offers to their customers for the carnival. They pre-sold carnival tickets for a discounted price, and presented the “Fair Deal” package which let anyone participate in the carnival for half price on Thursdays and Fridays from 12:00pm to 6:00pm. Robison said that this gave an incentive to bolster attendance on those days.
Robison was quick to point out that the Clark County Fair wouldn’t be what it is today without its army of volunteers from the community.
“I take my hat off to hundreds of people that come and help us,” Robison said. “They take a lot of pride in the community and present the Fair in the best way possible.”
