PORT TOWNSEND — Attendance at the 69th annual Jefferson County Fair, which ended Aug. 13, didn”t go over 18,000 to break a record but it did surpass last year’s crowd.
Attendance this year was 16,927 compared to 16,413 last year, according to Sue McIntire, fair board treasurer.
She had hoped attendance would break 18,000, she had said earlier.
Last year’s total was down from the 17,000 who attended the fair in 2004.
This year, the daily gates were up from last year’s by about 700, she said, but season tickets were down from previous years.
Vendors numbered 122 this year compared to last year’s 117.
The fair served 1.015 beef barbecue dinners compared to 1,236 dinners last year. Salmon barbecue dinners served this year numbered 209 compared to 2005’s 241.
Fair officials counted just about everything.
This year the fair sold 492 bags of ice and used more than 500 garbage bags and more than 275 rolls of toilet paper.