The Nebraska State Fair has set a new single day attendance record since moving to Grand Island with a total of 71,355 fairgoers on Sunday, September 1, 2013.
“This single day attendance record surpassed our previous record of 67,929 on the same Sunday in 2011,” according to State Fair Executive Director Joseph McDermott. “It was only 367 visitors short of the all time State Fair single day attendance record of 71,627 set in 2009—the final year the State Fair was in Lincoln.”
“The heat was certainly an issue for the first 9 days when temperatures were much higher than weeks previous to the start of the fair, McDermott said. “Happily, our total attendance came in at 334,931 which is just 2,056 visitors behind 2012.” “The one thing we’re not able to control is the weather, but happily we rallied the final two days of the fair when even Labor Day attendance was 3,500 higher than the same day a year ago.”
Each year, the Nebraska State Fair contracts with EventCorp Services to conduct electronic surveys on the fairgrounds to learn what fairgoers are thinking day by day.
While the full electronic survey has not been tabulated, McDermott said, “We do know that 60% of our attendance came from Grand Island and Central Nebraska and 17% came from Lincoln and Omaha. The Lincoln/Omaha numbers are up a percentage point over 2012.”
State Fair Board Chair, Jana Kruger from Arlington, Neb. said, “Given our tremendous survey results, we know we’re continuing to do the right thing year after year to keep folks coming back for more.” “93.4% of our survey respondents said they would enthusiastically recommend the Nebraska State Fair to others. This goes to customer satisfaction, and we’re very pleased we’re able to provide a family friendly venue for all of our visitors.”
Kruger said, “We want to thank all our guests and we are hopeful that each of them will continue to visit and tell others what they may be missing, if they haven’t attended. This is truly a family event, and we don’t spare anything to make it better each year.”
The dates for the 2014 Nebraska State Fair are August 22 through September 1.