The 162nd Wayne County Fair concluded Saturday night, Aug. 10, finishing a glorious, sunny — and crowded — day on the fairgrounds, capping what Fair President Roger Dirlam said may be best remembered as the “Rain County Fair.”
It was so rainy during the previous eight days that Friday set an inglorious record with only 69 people attending. That’s 69. Not 6,900.
It was so bad the fair officials called off the fair at 3 p.m., eight hours early, sending what few visitors and vendors they had left home, or wherever they go when not at the fair north of Honesdale. “It was the worst in history,” Dirlam said of the attendance.
“It rained, and rained and rained,” said Wayne Perricone, who with his family has a stand selling boiled potatoes, corn on the cob and BLTs. “It rained heavy; I have never seen a fair so rainy… There was nobody here.” The Perricone family has had the stand at the fair for over 60 years.
Asked how they weather a bad year financially, he commented, “Some days you’re the windshield, and some days you’re the bug.” He added that working at the fair is fun.
Dirlam said storm runoff waterfalls poured down the hillside behind the fairgrounds. The racetrack infield flooded, and the parking lot became a muddy lake.
He said Dyberry Creek, which runs parallel to the fairgrounds on the other side of the road, stayed within its banks. He reminded that the Jadwin Dam was built in 1959 just north of the fairgrounds. This dam and the Prompton Dam, built around the same time, have been credited with stopping major flooding in the Honesdale valley like occurred in 1942 and other times.
The National Weather Service website has a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration graph indicating that the creek quickly rose on Friday and peaked at 6.29 feet at 4 a.m. Saturday, below the “action stage” of 6.5 feet.
“Mother Nature wasn’t very good to us,” Dirlam said, reflecting on their first eight days. “It is sort of sad.” He noted all the work that goes into planning the fair.
Some of those braving intermittent but sometimes heavy showers that week were seen undaunted, with umbrellas or ponchos, sometimes carrying the huge plush prizes won that day. Indoor attractions become extra popular when it rains hard.
Brandon, who declined to give his last name, operated one of the game concession stands. He said that he watched as the runoff from the hillside spread water across much of the midway.
The Fair Association first announced on Facebook that the Monster Truck Freestyle show for Friday evening had to be canceled, and refunds would be given. Shortly after, the fairgrounds closed. Dirlam said the parking lot was inundated, and the vendors were already leaving. With so few visitors that day, Dirlam said they didn’t have any concern about refunding entrance tickets.
More: Wayne County Fair closes Friday for weather as remnants of Debby move north
Dirlam said attendance on Saturday was 16,828, which exceeded his cautious expectations. That brought the grand total to 67,112.
Saturday boomed, with thick crowds on the midway and rides in full tilt. The livestock auction benefiting 4-H and FFA was underway throughout the day. The Monster Truck grandstand show sold out, working up an appetite for a reported huge surge of people coming out and hitting the food stands.
Indicative of a really good fair, traffic heading from the direction of Honesdale with many vehicles entering the fairgrounds late Saturday afternoon was backed up all the way to at least as far as The Dime Bank on 9th Street (2.3 miles).
Dirlam said they have not had as few as 67,000 people in over 30 years. In the last 10 years, they typically have had approximately 80,000 to 90,000 each year. In 2023, they were favored with 92,139.
A couple times in recent years the fair exceeded 100,000 in attendance, averaging over 11,000 a day. Dirlam reminds it is always weather dependent. Three times in 162 years, they canceled altogether: 1888 due to finances, 1942 due to flood damage and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dirlam said on Saturday morning the 2024 fair had been an economic loss. “We need about 70,000 people to break even,” he said, and then have some extra to do capital improvements. “We just go in the hole for a year and climb back out,” he said.
Once the grand total exceeding 67,000 came in, he said, “That helped our suffering a little bit,” adding they looked forward to trying again at the 2025 fair.
Peter Becker has worked at the Tri-County Independent or its predecessor publications since 1994. Reach him at [email protected] or 570-253-3055 ext. 1588.
This article originally appeared on Tri-County Independent: Rainy Wayne County Fair sees 67,112 visitors in 2024
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