Gate and overall revenues at the Southeast Alaska State Fair increased about 4 percent over last year’s event, executive director Jessica Edwards said at the Aug. 23 annual membership meeting.
Edwards attributed the increase to good weather and word-of-mouth advertising following recent fairs. Due to use of a new season pass, attendance numbers are difficult to compare to last year’s, she said.
Volunteers logged 1,152 hours during the fair and exhibit-collection weekend, and covered 266 shifts, she said.
Edwards said the fair recently closed its gravel pit to public use, after 20 years, and this winter will begin considering other uses for the area. The walls of the pit have been collapsed.
“That’s a big area we’ll be dealing with. We need to think about it as fair property and what other uses we could have there.”
Edwards said the fair would be “fine-tuning” the annual Great Alaska Craft Beer and Homebrew Festival. Attendance this year climbed 10 percent to 1,500, with heavy participation from Whitehorse, Y.T. and Juneau.
Changes may include a ticketing system that would allow purchasers to print out tickets at home and possible coordination with a downtown market or sidewalk sale, she said. “The festival’s relaxed, friendly atmosphere is what people comment on.”
Non-fair events held at the fairgrounds or supported by the fair in the past year included a disc golf tournament, three film festivals, Halloween and Thanksgiving fun runs, a wine tasting, Winter Games, the Spring Fling fair membership event and the high school prom.
Upcoming events to be held there include banquets for the Haines Chamber of Commerce and a statewide museum conference.
Goals for the coming year include perhaps adding an off-season event, like a fall marathon, continuing a fairgrounds perimeter trail, upgrading Dalton City bathrooms, rebuilding the Kids’ Stage, completing “the story of the fair” with information since the mid-1990s, and getting online videos of the event.
Edwards said she also is hoping to speak in Southeast communities in the coming months, addressing groups like chambers of commerce to help boost attendance, membership and volunteering. “We want to make a presence and remind (member communities) that we care about them, and that it’s a Southeast state fair and not the Haines fair.”
With the resignation of Kevin Forster, one seat is open on the fair board. Fair board members are Eric Forster, Julie Anderson, Theresa Raven, Rodger Tuenge, Paul Wheeler and Deborah Marshall. The fair board’s next meeting is Sept. 11. For more information, call 766-2476.