This summer’s Bangor State Fair drew more people and made more money after returning to a two-weekend model for the first time since the pandemic.
More than 19,200 people came to the seven-day event this year, a boost of roughly 3,200 visitors. Gross revenue from this summer’s fair was $632,284, which is about $192,000 higher than last year’s earnings, according to Chris McGrail, general manager of the Cross Insurance Center.
McGrail shared these results with Bangor city councilors last week.
The Bangor State Fair has been a mainstay in the community since at least 1849 and is considered one of the oldest state fairs in the country. The fair has slowly rebounded in visitorship and revenue after it was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, but isn’t yet close to its pre-pandemic scale. For example, the 2019 fair saw 27,000 people over two weekends, but only 16,000 came to the four-day fair in 2023.
McGrail said he’d hoped to see higher attendance and earnings this summer, but he believes the fair improved in other ways and will continue to grow in future years. Organizers plan to hold the fair over two weekends again next year.
“I think we’re rebuilding and regaining the interest and trust in people,” said Stesha Cano, assistant general manager of the Cross Insurance Center. “This year was a good step in the right direction.”
Last year, fair organizers set the goals of offering a wider variety of attractions and broadening the event’s food and beverage options.
In addition to meeting those goals, this year’s fair also improved the event’s relationship with the community and had more of an emphasis on the agricultural offerings available to visitors, McGrail said.
The fair brought in more music performances from local and regional bands, offered a car show and made a separate “kids zone” where families could find performances from a puppeteer troupe, magicians and a face painting station.
“We wanted to make an area that would be fun for people who have younger kids who don’t want to get swallowed up by the midway,” Cano said. “We also realized that not everyone wants to ride on rides or eat the food that’s provided.”
Fair organizers also aimed to broaden awareness and participation in the fair’s agricultural offerings after livestock exhibits returned last year. They believed they achieved this by increasing the number of animals, holding working steer demonstrations and offering an interactive dairy display, among other additions.
The fair also made an effort to give back to the community by donating revenue from parking and a dunk tank to a local nonprofit and schools athletic programs.
Next summer, organizers plan to continue tractor pull demonstrations, offer two rounds of demolition derby, upgrade the location of Food Truck Alley and hold more attractions at the fair’s Grandstand and other event spaces.
“We had a couple days without any Grandstand attractions and we really felt that from an attendance standpoint,” McGrail said. “It’s not perfect, it’s a work in progress, but the expectation is we want to continue growing.”
