Plymouth County Fair hits record attendance

(Sentinel photo by Beverly Van Buskirk) It was a full house Sunday afternoon at the Plymouth County Fair Auction. Benches, bleachers and picnic tables were filled throughout "The Best Five Days of Summer" at the Plymouth County Fair. [Click to enlarge]

Attendance spiked to 92,500 for the five days, according to Dave Lehner, ticket chairman.

The highest attendance before that was in 2005, when the number of people flocking to the fair reached 91,200.

"People just like coming to the Plymouth County Fair," Fair Board President Terry Reuter said Monday. "It's a really good quality fair. All the little things add up."

This year's fair also set a record for daily attendance with Saturday's number -- 23,500.

In 2005, the daily high, also on Saturday, peaked at 20,500.

The demolition derby Saturday night traditionally offers major crowd appeal. But the derby wasn't the only draw, Reuter said.

"Saturday with the huge crowd, people were scattered all over the fairgrounds. Every entertainment venue was full," he said.

A large crowd is good for everyone, Reuter added.

"The commercial vendors, they were really amazed," he said. "When you get a crowd like that, you get a lot of follow up, even a month or two down the road."

All of the non-profit groups that host food stands enjoyed the benefits of a hungry crowd as well.

By Sunday, the Grandstand Pork Stand was out of gloves for their famous Chop in a Glove, so they changed to Chop in a Bag. Other food vendors were making trips into town to buy more meat and supplies to keep up with demand.

"By 10 p.m. Sunday night, all the food was gone. Everything was sold out," Reuter said. "We did pretty good."

Total attendance numbers for the 2009 Plymouth County Fair, according to Lehner, are:

Wednesday - 13,500

Thursday - 18,500

Friday - 19,000

Saturday - 23,500

Sunday - 18,500

TOTAL - 92,500