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09/03/2012 08:09 AM

Fair attendance down compared to last year

Attendance at this year's state fair has been down compared to last year, but what impact, if any, does that have on the fair experience? YNN's Erin Clarke spoke to fairgoers to find out.

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NY STATE FAIR -- Regina Venettozzi and her friend, Donna Marie Werner, have been coming to the New York State Fair since they were in college. Years later, they're visiting with another generation and say the fair keeps getting better.

"There seems to be a lot more things from the state agencies that they're offering, some exhibits that are new and of course the old standards are still here, the butter sculpture, the sand sculpture," said Regina Venettozzi, a Utica resident.

Fairgoers seem to still be enjoying the fair, despite lower attendance this year. Some people, like Marissa Walter, who has come out every year since the late 90s, attributes the decline to the musical entertainment. Last year she went to four concerts, this year just one.

"I was kind of disappointed. There wasn't as much diversity. I think that a lot of people felt as though we kind of got cheated in the entertainment," said Marissa Walter, a Rome resident.

Despite her dissatisfaction with the acts that took the stage this year, Walter realizes that the fair is much more than the concerts and is taking it all in stride.

Besides, there is one good thing about a couple of thousand less people visiting the fairgrounds...

"While you're here to have lower attendance is a good thing because you move around, do whatever you want. It used to be so crowded that you could barely move in some spaces and I haven't seen that anywhere and we haven't waited on very long lines," Werner said.

And for those people that did come out, no matter how big or small the crowd was, the experience was a smile a minute.