Concerts and kids—what a fair!

    It was a record-setting night for ticket sales when country star Scotty McCreery and Ernest performed at the Chase County Fair grandstand show, selling more tickets than any other on record.
    Saturday’s concert was a fitting finale to the week-long fair that saw many events with bigger attendance than 2021, and some the best ever.
    “This was a really great year,” said fair board member Jake Burke, who handles tickets and marketing.
    “Our feedback has been very positive,” he said.
    The McCreery/Ernest show Saturday sold 3,128 tickets, Burke said.
    That beat the previous all-time best ticket-selling show of Old Dominion in 2017, which sold 3,030 tickets.
    Burke believes the combination of the type of country music McCreery and Ernest perform may have been the reason for the big night.
    “The mixture of the two of them drew in a lot of people,” Burke said.
    He noted Ernest has a “newer-type” of country music and has written for a lot of singers, while McCreery has had several No. 1 country hits. His “Damn Strait” hit song had been No. 1 on the Billboard country chart just days earlier.
    Friday’s performance did well, too, he said, when 2,378 people bought tickets to see 38 Special and Tyler Braden. That was above the board’s projections, Burke said.
    It wasn’t just the weekend grandstand shows that had big numbers.
    And the heat, climbing to the  90s Monday through Saturday, didn’t seem to deter activity except for some mid-afternoons.
    “It was hot, but I don’t think it slowed many people down. After 5, things picked up,” Burke said.
    He agreed, however, the week’s consistent hot days marked the hottest fair he remembers.
    He said the vendors used a lot of water and the Wauneta-Palisade wrestling team ran out of water at Saturday’s concert where they also sold soft drinks.
    Heartland of America Shows, which returned to the CCF with its carnival, saw an 8% increase over 2021 in ticket sales, Burke said.
    “We are one of the few fairs in the state with increases at the carnival over 2021,” he said.
    Carnival activity stayed busy, with long lines at times at some of the more popular rides.
    Despite the heat, Saturday’s parade with 60 entries drew crowds all along the route. Burke walked in the parade as part of the entry from Adams Bank & Trust, where he works, so he saw the crowds firsthand.
    “It was a really good crowd,” he said.
    There were 46 teams in the cornhole tournament, 26 bikes in the motorcycle show,  more than 65 car show entries, 15 groups performing at the dance crew contest and 86 adult/youth runners and walkers at the Saturday morning fair run.
    Earlier in the week, 21 teams and 18 bronc riders entertained fans at the ranch rodeo. Both those numbers were up over previous years.
    Those all marked increases over 2021.
    Auctioneer Preston Smith said overall prices paid at Friday’s livestock sale were above average. Eighty-one animals went on the auction block, he said, after increased youth participation in the individual 4-H/FFA livestock shows.
    “It’s one of the top sales we’ve had,” he said.
    He said buyer attendance was phenomenal.
    After the second best year ever in 2021, the Imperial Lions Club bingo operation at the fair topped last year with gross sales bypassing $13,100, according to early estimates. Bingo runs Wednesday through Saturday.
Two new events popular
    Axe throwing and a dog pulling contest were a couple of new fair events this year, and both proved popular.
    The dog pulling contest drew 20 dogs and coordinator Marcie Kelley said there is a lot of interest for next year when she hopes it can be moved an hour later for better shade.
    Kendall Teichmeier of Broken Bow brought his mobile axe throwing unit and was set up in the expo Wednesday through Saturday. He said crowds were “tremendous” and he hopes to coordinate an axe throwing tournament at the 2023 fair.
    Dates for next year’s fair will be Aug. 13-19, 2023.