Colorado State Fair sees an 8% increase in attendance going into Labor Day weekend

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO)--According to officials with the Colorado State Fair, they're on track to beat their attendance record from last year. Officials told KRDO that they're seeing an 8% increase in attendance going into the busy labor day weekend, hoping to have nearly 500,000 people or more by the last day of the state fair.

The director of programming and parnerships, Devin Vaughn, said it feels great to have good attendance, especially after the pandemic.

"2020 was hard. You know, we were still able to do a lot of the events or livestock for some of those events. We do our drive-thru for food, so we still kind of try to keep the spirit of the fair alive. But it was it was not the same at all," said Vaughn.

Overall attendance numbers over the last 5 years:

2017- 480,104

2018-444,476

2019-466,380

2020- N/A

2021-457,765

Vaugh told KRDO that they expect big crowds this weekend.

Vaughn said their monster truck show Friday night should be sold out. Also, their matinee performance the demolition derby tomorrow will be sold out. She also said they have big concerts on Sunday as well. Stone Temple Pilots.

Officials with the Colorado State Fair said they reduced their hours this year. They said they're happy attendance is up despite the change.

"We didn't see enough traffic during those hours to stay open that long so we just reduced it by a couple of hours," said Vaughn.