PUEBLO- The Colorado State Fair brings in thousands every year, but this year, those numbers are trending downward.
Preliminary numbers from Monday afternoon show the total number of visitors is down by 6%.
The total number of visitors at the end of last year’s fair hit 480,204, compared to the numbers not including Monday of 411,261 this year.
This time last year, the total numbers sat at 439,480.
Fair organizers attribute the drop in attendance to the headline performances this year compared to last year.
In 2017, fair goers enjoyed performances from ZZ Top and comedian Gabriel Iglesias.
This year’s line up brought big names such as Joan Jett, Oak Ridge Boys, and Larry the Cable Guy.
The fair’s new General Manager, Scott Stoller says those names just didn’t bring in the same numbers.
‘Sometimes you get lucky and you have opportunities to have those acts come through that are just, you know they’re going to be a sell out,’ said Stoller ‘by no means were the the Old dominion, or the Joan Jett, or the Larry the Cable Guy shows not successful ,they just weren’t that almost sell out successful.’
Some of the biggest drops in attendance included the 1st day attendance compared to 2017.
In 2017 nearly 62,000 visitors made the trip to the State Fair.
This year saw about a 44% decline with a little more than 35,000 attendees.
While the General Manager is new he says even with the low attendance numbers, the state fair won’t be moving out of Pueblo.
‘Pueblo is ingrained in Colorado State fair, to try and uproot that somewhere else it’s not going to be the same event,’ said Stoller.
2018 marked the 146th year for the annual event.
