By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The full impact of shutting down the Indiana State Fair on Sunday, Aug. 14, after the deaths of several people when the entertainment stage collapsed during high winds that Saturday night, is still being assessed.

Still, it’s clear the tragedy did have an impact, both on attendance and on the bottom line of vendors. Andy Klotz, media relations director for the Indiana State Fair, said early last week the final attendance figures show 872,312 people passed through the turnstiles.

“The way we gauge the success of the fair for our vendors is attendance,” said Klotz. “Before the fair starts, we create a budget based on the attendance we expect.”

This year, state fair officials planned for 900,000 visitors during the 17-day run of the fair, from Aug. 5-21. The final count, said Klotz, was down slightly from the budgeted goal, and down 8 percent from last year’s attendance of 952,020.
Attendance on Aug. 21 was
52,335, a total comparable to what had been expected on Aug. 14. The collapse came when rigging on the temporary entertainment stage snapped in 60- to 70-mph wind as 12,000 fans waited for the country music duo Sugarland to take the Grandstand.

“It’s difficult to say what kind of impact that had on the fair’s vendors,” said Klotz. “I’ve had some vendors tell me it didn’t impact them, and I’ve heard that others were down.”

One impact from the stage collapse, which moved other big-name entertainment away from the state fairgrounds to Conseco Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis, was night attendance. Klotz said not only were the Janet Jackson and Maroon 5 concerts moved to downtown, the fair lost three days of harness racing and three other events scheduled for the Grandstand.
Even after the fair reopened, the Grandstand was closed while safety investigators swarmed over the site looking for the cause of the collapse. “Entertainment by and large dictates our night attendance,” said Klotz. “We notice a surge in attendance between 5:30 and 7 p.m. – the dinner crowd – for entertainment.”

He added that attendance during the first few days of the state fair was down slightly because of extreme heat. To try to boost attendance after the collapse, on Aug. 19 admission was free – while it helped lure visitors, vendors said it wasn’t enough to make up for the day the fair was closed.
“We needed something else to inspire folks to come out, and free usually does that,” said Klotz. “We’ve had rain and hot weather affect attendance in the past. If we were down 20,000 or 30,000 from expectations because of weather, no one would notice.”

For Don McSwain, a co-owner of Quality Built Backyards in Indianapolis, foot traffic to his booth this year was lighter than in it has been any of the previous 10 years he has set up at the fair.

Quality Built provides and installs sheds, garages, pergolas, arbor swings, gazebos, pool houses and other custom designed buildings for residential customers. “The first four or five days, we had hot weather and some rain and things were down a bit, but it started to pick up in the middle of the week. Then, the stage collapse happened and after that, things really slowed down,” said McSwain.

Because of the economy, he expected things to “be a little soft” at the fair, but not to tail off as it did in the final week. “We did make a lot of contacts, so I hope we’ll generate some business from those,” said McSwain. “If this year is like past years, this week could be one of our busiest of the year, as people who visited us start to call back wanting information.”

He said it’s too early to tell how much he will be down compared to last year, but according to published reports, other vendors were off between 25-30 percent.

Besides commercial vendors such as McSwain, many not-for-profit groups like Kiwanis and Lions clubs, band boosters and others use the state fair as one of their major fund-raising efforts for the year.

One of those, the Indiana Beef Cattle Assoc. (IBCA), sells rib eye steak sandwiches. Before the stage collapse, Ginny Tauer, special events coordinator for the IBCA, said sales were good, but afterwards, the decline in sales was noticeable. Total dollar amounts generated by the state fair won’t be known for a few weeks, until all the receipts are counted and the bills paid, said vendors.