The 2023 Highland County Fair had average attendance for a 10-year average, according to Mark Baldwin, Highland County Senior Fair Board president.

Baldwin said that if he were to go into specifics, the attendance from the 2023 version was down “a little bit” compared to the 2022 version. However, he also said that overall, 2023’s fair was average when put together with the last 10 years of fairs.

Concerning specific days, Baldwin said the attendance numbers for Wednesday and the last Saturday of the fair were down from normal. On Wednesday, he said there was a little threat of rain, with some sprinkles and drizzling, which could have been a reason for the down attendance.

In terms of other fair matters, Baldwin said the performance as far as the youth and their shows had “excellent” participation. He also said the community involvement for the Junior Fair Livestock sales was more than 2022, with there being “great” involvement and participation.

For the new alpaca/llama show, he said he thought there were around 10 to 12 on show, saying that the people involved in it were “very” excited about it.

“You have to change and evolve with the people and if people want to show alpacas and show that part of it, we’re there to support that. I think that was excellent,” Baldwin said.

Concerning the cornhole tournament, he said he thought it was “pretty good.” He also said the fair is trying to get more people involved and is thankful people showed an interest in the event.

“I believe that the fair was successful. There was lots of changes, but we’re very thrilled to have our new Highland District Hospital livestock facility to house the animals, which was a learning curve and we’re figuring that part out. But I mean, as far as I believe, that the fairgrounds is blessed to have it, and the community will have the benefits from now on.”

Baldwin said the fair board has started to notice that it is losing some fair people. He said that as each generation gets removed from agriculture, you lose fairgoers. He also said that schools being off that week, he has also noticed that instead of students always going to the fair, some families will go on vacation. He called that maybe just a “societal change.”

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.