CarnivalWarehouse.com - 2007 Top 50 Fair and Carnival Ranking

NORTH AMERICA'S TOP 50 FAIRS DREW OVER 41,000,000 VISITORS IN 2007 Texas State Fair remains #1

The Top 50 North American Fairs had essentially the same attendance as in 2006. 41,468,926 attended North America's top 50 fairs in 2007, down only slightly from 2006's total of 41,475.968. North America's top event was once again the Texas State Fair with an MCW estimated 2,052,000 in attendance. The top 4 fairs remained the same as 2006: Texas, followed by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, up 7%, the Minnesota State Fair which was even with 2006 and the Los Angeles County Fair, down 4% from 2006.

Added to 2007 the list were four fairs: The State Fair Of Louisiana, the Maryland State Fair, the Ionia Free Fair and the Dixie Classic Fair. The State Fair of Louisiana, under manager Chris Giordano, broke the Top 50 with 405,478, landing at #47. The Maryland State Fair once again reentered the list after a one-year absence. The fair was up a whopping 21% over 2006 with 417,458, securing the # 45 spot. The Ionia Free Fair, another fair that has been on the list previously, was up 4% and landed at # 46 with 406,890. The Dixie Classic Fair made their list debut at #50. This is the second North Carolina Fair on the list along with the North Carolina State Fair. The Dixie Classic was up a huge 17% to 371,219, appearing in the #50 spot.

Four fairs also dropped off the list this year. The Greater Jacksonville Fair was unable to report its attendance for the second year in a row by press time. In 2006, MCW estimated the attendance using a multiple year average. The fair appeared at #39 last year. The Salem Free Fair, plagued by poor weather also saw an attendance dip which took them off the list. The Mid-South Fair in Memphis, faced with competition from the new Delta Music Fair and Festival, which premiered over Labor Day weekend, also slipped of the list. The largest move on the list was the Central Canada Exhibition which fell from the #37 spot. The fair was down by over 30% with an attendance of 365,427. President Dave Presley said the fair was severely hurt by seven days of rain and inclement weather.

Other major movers on the list include the York Fair, up 13%, the Capital EX in Edmonton, ALB, up 12 %, the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, up 18% and the biggest mover on the list, the Allentown Fair, up an incredible 36% in S&S Amusement's last year on the midway.

Extreme heat hurt many fairs, especially in the mid-west, this summer. Some of the biggest drops came from the Indiana State Fair (down 14%), the Iowa State Fair (down 9%) and the Canadian National Exhibition (down 10%). The biggest drop came from the California State Fair, down 21%. The attendance drop was due to a shortening of the fair by 6 days, from 22 to 16 days. Despite the overall attendance drop, average daily attendance was up, at 47,489 per day. Manager Norb Bartosik said they were “thrilled with this year's attendance.”

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