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Fair weather helped boost fair attendance by 2,000
DEBORA VAN BRENK, Free Press Reporter 2004-09-22 03:44:55
The mountains of stuffed prizes are packed away, the cows and calves are back at their farms and the rides gone for another year. All told, 245,189 people took in this year's edition of the Western Fair, which ended its run Sunday.
Attendance was up about 2,000 over last year.
"We had wonderful weather all through the fair. That's two years in a row," said Western Fair's Anne Eadie.
The rain-free run of the 10-day fair was one of Eadie's personal highlights. Another was the appearance of the Texas country band Lonestar last Friday to a sold-out crowd.
"I've been attempting to get them for years and they always slipped through my grasp," Eadie said.
She is known for her knack of booking acts to appear just as they're making it big, or already popular performers whose stars haven't yet waned.
----She isn't giving away next year's secrets but says she would like to see if Gordon Lightfoot is available. Lightfoot is slowly returning to a performance schedule following a near-fatal aneurism in 2002.----
This year's edition also saw the debut of the Agriplex, a 160,000-square-foot exhibition hall complete with 1,500-seat arena. Many of its shows, including chariot races and horse-riding demonstrations, were full.
Eadie said the building is already booked for several other exhibits throughout the year and there is the possibility it may be a host site of some indoor sports events.
"I think it will seldom sit empty."
Meanwhile, ride operators continued to disassemble their attractions and some were on the road as early as Monday morning.
Eadie said London is the last big fair in this region and many are now on their way south of the border for American fall fairs.
In the fair's buildings, exhibitors packed up their displays and returned to their businesses.
Where people hawked beer nuts and recreational vehicles for 10 days, other shows booked for exhibit buildings this weekend began to set up in their place.
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