LITTLE ROCK — Wide-eyed and flat on his back, 4-year-old Kayden Loyd slid down the Fun Slide at the Arkansas State Fair on Sunday and got off smiling.
As the sky started to mist, Kayden begged his mother, Tracey Loyd of Little Rock, to let him ride the swinging pendulum Nemesis 360, saying, “I can handle it.”
On the final day of the 10-day fair, State Fair General Manager Ralph Shoptaw had to handle having average attendance numbers.
Not including Sunday, 409,292 people attended the fair this year. In 2010, the fair saw 472,194 people during its 10-day run.
“Last year was a record year. We’re down a little bit from that, but as a five-year average, we’re about in our average,” Shoptaw said. “We’re probably not going to break a record this year, but we still have Sunday to go.”
Rain, cool weather and area sporting events might have weakened attendance, Shoptaw said.
“Last year we had 10 days of perfect weather,” Shoptaw said. “We’ve had a little bit of unseasonably cool temperatures.”
Concerts were a big hit, with rock bands such as Foghat and Jefferson Starship and country music star Travis Tritt, who drew about 4,000 people, Shoptaw said.
New attractions such as the Barton Rock and Roll Museum and the slapstick Wild West comedy show “Shenani-Guns!” were also popular.
“We’ve had full crowds every show,” ShenaniGuns! actor Ron Cameron of North Carolina said. “[There’s been] a lot of laughs, which is what we’re here for.”
New to the fair this year was the Great American Wild West Show, which had two performances.
“It was a wonderful performance, but we weren’t real happy with ticket sales,” Shoptaw said.
Shoptaw estimated the shows took in about $30,000, with about 2,500 people per show. Since Barton Coliseum seats about 6,000, Shoptaw said they had hoped for a bigger turnout for what he described as the “theater on dirt” history of the Old West.
About 3,000 people attended Saturday night’s Ridin’ in the Rock show with the Professional Bull Riders Tour, about 1,000 more than attended Friday. This was the second year for the State Fair to hold a bull-riding-only show, doing away with its traditional rodeo, which lost about $61,546 within three years.
This year, about 8,000 animals were entered in livestock competitions. Overall entries decreased from last year by about 2,000, but poultry and rabbit entries increased to about 1,800 entries.
“It’s so expensive to raise a steer or calf because of feed, so a lot of the FFA kids are [showing] some of the smaller animals,” Shoptaw said.
For the second year in a row, the fair hosted an 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekday lunch promotion where parking and gate admission were free.
“We had a lot of people out here during the weekdays that just come out for lunch. The food vendors, of course, love it,” Shoptaw said.
Vendors agreed that the promotion was helpful, but some say it wasn’t enough.
“I didn’t make a profit, I lost some,” said vendor Tony Cumings of Indiana, who ran a steakhouse stand. “I might have broken even. It is what it is.”
While vendors kept visitors fed, more than 100 people, including fairgrounds security officers, Little Rock police, Arkansas State Police officers and Pulaski County sheriff’s deputies, kept patrons safe, said Uriel Johnson, chief of security at the fairgrounds.
“We’ve had less going on this year than we’ve had going on the past couple years as far as incidents,” Johnson said. “I would think security is, I wouldn’t say better, but maybe more present, as far as being seen.”
A problem for the State Fair that didn’t improve was the lack of space, Shoptaw said.
“This fair has grown considerably over the last few years and we’re just out of room,” Shoptaw said. “On Saturday we just basically ran out of parking.”
The Arkansas Livestock Show Association board requested proposals in November 2009 to consider relocating the fair or keeping it at its 148-acre location in central Little Rock.
Staying on Roosevelt Road, which has been the fair’s home for 65 years, is still a possibility, Shoptaw said. The association is also looking at areas in North Little Rock and Jacksonville, north of Interstate 40 and east of Interstate 440.
“The reason we’re taking our time in making our decision is because we want to make the right decision because we’ll probably never do this again if we move,” Shoptaw said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/24/2011