Loveland – This is not how Reid Gardner remembers the county fair of his youth.
Along the grounds of the Larimer County Fair on Friday, a Rod Stewart song blared through loudspeakers, as toddlers and their moms strolled by corporate logos en route to the goat pen.
The fair tradition Gardner was looking for – blue-ribbon-winning pies – was on the opposite side of booths selling mortuary plans and sunglasses.
“When I was a youth, the fair existed as an agricultural function,” said Gardner, a longtime Loveland resident. “Farmers and craftsmen and artists would display their work, and people would come in and admire them.
“I’m not sure what the function of the fair is now,” he said.
What Gardner is seeing is a modernization of the county fair, an evolution that organizers hope is a tonic for a withering summer tradition.
Nowadays, county fairs – some more than 100 years old – are offering demolition derbies and monster truck shows to get families in the gate.
With attendance tumbling from 84,000 in 2004 to 60,579 last year, Larimer County officials decided to expand events while cutting parking and admission fees.
Elsewhere in Colorado and across the country, many fairs are struggling with declining attendance and financial issues.
“Expectations are so high anymore for entertainment, and if you don’t have good performances and good features, then people will go elsewhere,” said Larimer County Commissioner Kathay Rennels.
So this year at the Larimer fair, visitors can see a concert featuring country star Collin Raye, movies under the stars and a dog pull. The county puts on its fair, which ends Tuesday, for about $250,000, and it traditionally loses about $100,000.
But counties don’t put on fairs to turn a profit, said Don Svedman of Fort Collins. Svedman was the manager of the Colorado State Fair from 1966 to 1970 and has helped oversee the Larimer fair.
“There’s not a fair in the country that pays for itself,” Svedman said. “How can you have a place operating for only 10 to 12 days and expect a profit?”
Still, counties are trying to manage their fairs like big businesses, minimizing losses to make the most of the value they bring to a community. Fair managers point out that crowd-pleasing events and booths underwrite the efforts of the 4-H Club and FFA and the projects they have worked on all year.
“What we still strive to do is to educate the public on our agricultural heritage and why it is important that we maintain that,” said Kathy Lynch, spokeswoman for the Boulder County Fair.
Meanwhile, the fairs continue to make changes to boost attendance. The El Paso County Fair, for example, hosted a teen battle of the bands, while Douglas County used corporate sponsorships and advertising on country radio stations to promote its annual celebration.
Fair organizers in Douglas wrestle with a common problem in Colorado: trying to attract suburbanites while still pleasing the rural crowd.
“Our biggest challenge is generating interest from the newer residents,” said Wendy Holmes, county spokeswoman. “We have very rural and very suburban. We have very diverse lifestyles and expectations.”
Events in Douglas are geared mostly toward families. Thirty percent of county residents are younger than 18 and 25 percent are younger than 15, Holmes said.
“We do what good marketing people do,” she said. “We look to our population and product and look for a way to connect the dots.”
Both El Paso and Douglas counties say fair attendance is up, while attendance at the Adams County Fair in Henderson last year was at 65,000 and is expected to hold steady this year.
That’s due in part to a strong farming tradition in the county as well as events that cater to just about everybody.
“We even have bingo,” said parks director Crystal Gray.
In Boulder County, attendance at the county fair in Longmont has climbed in proportion with the county’s population. Organizers are hoping as many as 80,000 people attended this year, Lynch said. The fair wrapped up Saturday.
Lynch says the timeless qualities of a county fair are still vital to keep the event healthy.
That doesn’t mean the fair has remained unchanged. Boulder fair organizers now seek out moto cross exhibitions, model rocket contests and tractor pulls.
“We try to bring in entertainment that will appeal to a diverse group,” Lynch said. “It’s not just cows and calves.”
Staff writers John Ingold and Jeremy Meyer contributed to this report.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
