The Puyallup Fair this year is stopping its decades-old practice of reporting daily attendance.
The fair’s board of directors decided to stop publicly releasing these daily figures, said fair spokeswoman Karen LaFlamme. That also means the public won’t see a running count of how the crowds are trending compared with previous fairs.
Instead, the fair will release its total crowd count at the end of the 17-day run. That’s what many other large fairs do, and “we’ve decided to follow suit,” LaFlamme said.
She said releasing daily numbers can provide a skewed view. Attendance trends are complicated, influenced by factors including the weather, and “if one day goes a little lower than the previous year, that gives the impression something is down or off” when that’s not necessarily the case, she said.
“Why even put yourself there,” LaFlamme said.
“We’ll find out at the end what the attendance is.”
This year’s fair kicked off Friday with a parade and cattle drive downtown. The opening day crowd appeared robust; lines snaked out from food booths and rides mid-morning.
Last year’s opening day drew more than 75,000 people. Over the last three years, the fair’s total attendance has averaged about 1.1 million people.
The fair has published daily crowd counts on its website, www.thefair.com, the last couple of years. The News Tribune also routinely printed them over the last several years.
This year’s fair wraps up Sept. 23.
sara.schilling@thenewstribune.com
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