The South Dakota State Fair saw increases in attendance, revenue and camping this year. The five-day event hosted almost 200 thousand visitors and brought in 10 percent more revenue than 2011. As SDPB’s Cassie Bartlett reports, fair officials use past experiences as well as new ideas to draw crowds.
The grandstand events at this year’s state fair in Huron included bull riding, a night with the Steve Miller Band, and up-and-coming country singer Lee Brice. Candi Hettinger is the fair’s marketing and events director. She says keeping a mixture of classic country, classic rock and new singers at the fair brings reliable crowds. Hettinger also adds that for free entertainment, the fair also tries new things, like jousting this year.
“As far as the overall state fair goes, we always like to switch up our free entertainment lineup. Of course everything on the grounds, with the exception of the carnival of course, is free for people to take in, like our lineup on the Freedom Stage and the Dakota Land Stage and our ground entertainment. We like to keep everything as fresh as possible,” Hettinger says.
Hettinger says even though the state fair ended just about a month ago, next year’s fair is already on the radar. She says in the next two months fair officials will start contacting sponsors and entertainment. For South Dakota Public Broadcasting, I’m Cassie Bartlett.