Western Montana Fair Scores Higher Attendance and Revenue

According to officials at last week's Western Montana Fair, both attendance and revenue scored increases over previous years.

Senior Secretary Pirrie Harris was enthusiastic about the initial numbers from this year's fair.

"It was a great week," Harris said. "Our concessions were up. I haven't even put in all of Saturday's gross concessions, and we were already at our last year's total. So, everything from Saturday afternoon through Sunday was just frosting on the cake for the concessionaires."

Harris said more people came through the gates, as well.

"From Wednesday through Saturday, all of our gate admission numbers were up. We were up over 5,000 people, and that didn't include everybody who came on Tuesday or on Sunday. Those numbers don't include anything from the rodeo, the Bull-o-Rama or the Demolition Derby. Our whole staff came together to work hard and get everything going, and everybody put forth their effort and we made it a great one."

Harris said the nonprofits who operated food booths did exceptionally well at this year's fair.

"I haven't fully calculated the numbers because I don't have all of Sunday's numbers yet, but our nonprofits are bringing in great numbers," she said. "For instance, the Sons of Norway, it was probably Thursday, kids day, they had the best numbers they've had in the last four years. So, they almost grossed $10,000 on Thursday alone, so our nonprofits are bringing in some great numbers for their groups."

Harris said many visitors also contributed positive feedback to the proposed changes at the fairgrounds.