Merced County Fair Was a Huge Hit
By Diane Booth Conway,
Merced County Fair Publicity Director
Six days of glorious summer weather capped by comfortable, breezy evenings played a big part in bringing the community back to the 2007 Merced County Fair.
The 2007 Merced County Fair is history but the 116th event will be remembered for all the right reasons – a great showcase of the community’s talents and a very cooperative Mother Nature turned out to be a winning combination. Paid admissions to the 2007 fair totaled 55,798 up 15 percent from the 2006 fair's paid admissions of 48,488, said the fair's CEO, Robin Hauck.
Fair officials are still reviewing the numbers to determine the total attendance figure.
“It was a wonderful fair and lots of people came out to the fairgrounds to enjoy it,” said Hauck, adding, “We really lucked out with the weather and that made a huge difference.”
On top of that, fairgoers were well behaved and there were no incidents reported.
Paid attendance was up at the Merced County Fair for six years in a row until the 2003 fair experienced about a six percent drop in paid fair admissions. That was attributed to several days of triple digit temperatures. Paid attendance was up nine percent at the 2004 fair and paid admissions were up one percent at the 2005 fair.
All of the fairgrounds’ venues were well attended from the Carnival, Midway, Kiddieland and Old MacDonald’s Farm and Petting Barn, to the Grandstand, exhibit buildings and small stages.
The Grandstand events were popular and Xtremely Amped Freestyle Moto X Rock Show, a new show that combined extreme sports stunts and live rock music, attracted an extremely large audience Friday, July 20 that spilled out into the overflow bleacher seats.
The Outdoor Theatre drew big crowds nightly but the Friday, July 20 concert by Motown legends, “The Temptations” and the Sunday, July 22 performance by Graciela Beltran, a huge Mexican-American regional music star, overflowed the theatre seating. When the Temptations asked their audience Friday night to hold up their cell phones and call someone from the concert, the arena was filled with a sea of blue lights from the cell phone screens.
“This was a top notch fair with quality livestock, exhibits and entertainment. You can plan a lot of things when you put on a fair, but the weather isn’t one of them. A year’s worth of planning, hard work and dedication went into this fair and we’re grateful the great weather was so inviting and we had the opportunity to show off the fair to our community,” Hauck said.
The CEO said the fair's staff and Board of Directors of the 35th District Agricultural Association are happy that a large number of people turned out to support the fair. "Our community realizes that the fair is fun, safe, family-friendly entertainment that's an excellent value."
According to the fair's chief of security, Richard St. Marie, there were no serious problems at the fair -- everything went smoothly even though there were thousands of people on the fairgrounds throughout much of the fair’s run.
Just before Saturday's rodeo, Cinda Mattrocce, 18, of Madera, was crowned as the 2007 Merced County Fair Rodeo Queen. Candidates were judged on horsemanship, personality, appearance and stage performance. The June graduate from Madera High School is the daughter of David and Nancy Mattrocce of Madera.
The first runner-up was Michelle Tipton, 20, a Reedley College student. The daughter of Geoff and Tammy Tipton of Raymond, Michelle won the “Personal Interview Award” and the “Sponsorship Award.” Hillery Anderson, 18, a graduate of Buhach Colony High School in Atwater, won the “Horsemanship Award” and the “Appearance and Modeling Award.” She is the daughter of Shawn and Sarah Anderson of Winton. Ashton Wilfong, 15, a student at Sierra High School in Friant, won the “Western Spirit Award” and the “Impromptu Award.” She is the daughter of Les and Laci Wilfong of Friant.
The 2007 Merced County Fair Rodeo Grand Marshal was H.J. “Jim” Favier, 88, of Merced. He was honored during pre-rodeo festivities for his involvement in area agriculture as well as his family’s cattle ranching business, including a meatpacking company and feed lot. Favier also served on the fair’s Junior Livestock Auction Committee for more than 30 years and helped haul animals sold at the fair’s auction to processing facilities. Jim and his wife, Alice, have been married 51 years, have four children, six grandchildren and two-great grandchildren.
For six days the 2007 Merced County Fair was the “Gateway to Great Cheese” as we saluted one of the county’s top ag products. The fair offered more attractions than ever to fairgoers. There were more than 100 hands-on arts and crafts activities and artists' demonstrations and a long list of performances, music and dance shows on the smaller stages as well as roaming acts.
Fairgoers had a chance to visit with all sorts of animals, exotic and domestic, at the Old MacDonald's Farm and Petting Barn. The collection included a camel, a yak, a water buffalo, a llama and a Gir. Folks got to taste assorted cheeses, cheer on racing pigs, get a free make-up demonstration, watch Jeremy the Juggler juggle balls and bowling pins while zipping around on a unicycle, look on as Snuffy’s Magical Clowns created amazing animals and hilarious headgear out of balloons and kids hammered away at Home Depot, building projects including butterfly feeders and key hooks.
The weather was just right for fairgoers to indulge in oodles of fair taste treats and beverages. Here are some more of the fun stats for this year's fair:
• A total of 2,000 ribbons – first, second and third place as well as honorable mention and participation ribbons -- were awarded to winning exhibitors in all the exhibit buildings from Kids’ Art and Agriculture to Home Arts.
• At the 4-H Milk Bar near Livestock, they sold a lot of ice cream cones, Popsicles, milk and water but the most popular item hands down continues to be the fund-raiser booth’s famous milkshakes. By Sunday evening they served up about 4,000 milkshakes – vanilla is still No. 1, but there are a lot of chocolate fans.
• At the Midway’s “Big Race” game, fairgoers enjoyed firing water guns at a target to move a giant stuffed monkey up a wire, in a race against a line of other monkeys. About 75 four- foot high stuffed animal prizes were awarded to winning fairgoers – 35 “I Love You” Bears and 40 brown monkeys.
• Over at the “Hot Dog on a Stick” concession, hot dogs and regular corn dogs were in demand but the stand’s top seller was their 18-inch corndog – more than 2,000 sold.
• At the City of Merced booth in the Commercial Building, city employees handed out 207 job applications and 323 “You’re Hired” workshop flyers. They also collected signatures on a petition asking fairgoers to sign their names if they wanted the Bell Station Federal Building to remain a post office instead of being used by another agency.
• The Mosquito Abatement District booth at the Ag Building handed out 900 lollipops to people who correctly answered questions about mosquitoes.
• More than 1,000 fairgoers paid $1 to check out Wilbur, the Giant pig. The six-year-old pig tips the scales at more than 1,000 pounds. But Charlie and Carol Boger, Wilbur’s adoptive parents, let another 2,500 kids from 4-H, FFA and “Friends Helping Friends” participants take a free peek at the four-legged phenomenon.
• Over at "Ham Bone Express" racing pigs, stars including "Dolly Porkin” “Arnold Schwarzenpigger” and “Brittney Spareribs” ran a total of 80 races during the six-day fair and their handlers awarded 108 pig snouts to the races’ winning cheerleaders plus a few consolation prizes.
• Clint’s Lemonade Stand, inside the giant yellow lemon, squeezed up gallons and gallons of fresh lemonade for thirsty fairgoers and went through 600 pounds of lemons during the fair.
• At L’Bel Paris, they treated 190-something fairgoers to luxurious facials as well as countless free make-up applications.
• At the “Fairground Foto” booth near the main entrance gate, photographers took 6,866 photos of happy fairgoers entering the fairgrounds.
• Over at Livestock, 11 rabbit meat pens (three rabbits to a pen) were sold at the Rabbit Auction and 481 swine, sheep, goats and beef were sold at the Junior Livestock Auction. The total is down a bit from the 538 animals sold at the 2006 fair, however the average bid for animals at the 2007 auction was up 5 percent over 2006. The grand sales total for 2007 was $443,184. Total sales for the 2006 auction was $486,513.
For information, call the fair office at 722-1507 or email to Info@MercedCountyFair.com or fax at 722-3773. Visit the 2007 Merced County Fair’s award-winning website, www.MercedCountyFair.com
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