Picture-perfect weather contributed to the shattering of attendance records at the 2013 Ohio State Fair, which topped last year’s attendance by 63,518.
During the fair’s 12-day run, which ended yesterday, 903,824 people mobbed the fairgrounds. That handily beat the prior record of 850,218 in 2004, the first year the event ran for 12 days instead of 17.
As always, officials singled out “fair” weather for the 8 percent boost.
“This is almost a once-in-a-lifetime fair,” Tom Price, chairman of the Expositions Commission, said today. “The weather treated us very, very well.”
Temperatures were mild and didn’t surpass 81 degrees. Rain fell on three of the 12 days, for just above a half-inch, and the sun made an appearance nearly every day.
On July 28, attendance hit a single-day record when 115,288 people showed up, smashing the prior daily attendance record of 110,234, set in 2006.
That was the first Sunday of the fair. Yesterday, 98,612 people were in attendance.
Last year, 840,306 people went through the fair gates, compared with 833,304 in 2011.