Anybody remember this story from the Naked Loon’s April 1 launch day? Fun Over for King County Fair
Some choice excerpts:
Following years of waning attendance, organizers of the King County fair have announced that they have completely given up all hope of attracting visitors to the 145-year-old event.
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“I’m hoping that this will be what puts the fair out of its misery,” said fair manager Sharon Roberts. As the oldest fair in the Western U.S., the King County Fair has outlived its usefulness and really needs to go, Roberts said. Other fair organizers agreed that constantly putting on an event of this magnitude centered on such a mind-numbing subject has become increasingly wearisome throughout the years.
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Fair attendance has dropped from 64,821 people in 2003 to 33,119 in 2007. Fair officials hope that this move will finally be enough to drop attendance below 10,000, which would justify completely shutting it down once and for all.
Now consider this story from today’s Seattle Times: Sims proposes to shut down King County Fair
The King County Fair survived the Civil War, the Great Depression and two world wars.
But now, because of declining attendance and an ailing county budget, its days may be numbered.
King County Executive Ron Sims has proposed shutting down the 145-year-old Enumclaw event, which bills itself as the oldest county fair west of the Mississippi River.
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Sims said that for years he resisted suggestions that the fair be closed. But its continuing decline convinced him it was time to pull the plug.
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From the days when the fair drew 100,000 paying customers and exhibitors, it dwindled to 16,387 this year during its truncated three-day run — even though the county offered free admission.
It’s cute that the Times is reporting this as if it’s actually news. Looks like we scooped them by about… six months.
haha. That’s awesome.