Indiana State Fair draws record attendance

A record crowd of more than 965,000 attended the Indiana State Fair this year as it marked its highest attendance since 2004.

Along with an extra five days added to the fair, extra promotions and discounts are credited with increasing the amount of people attending.

“This is the attendance range we anticipated,” said Cindy Hoye, the state fair executive director, in a press release. “Most importantly, all 4-H families received the full state fair experience, which, in addition to offsetting the early start of schools, is why we extended the fair in the first place. Now we’ll go back and evaluate the operation to see how we can make it even better next year.”

With acts like Keith Urban, Journey, Heart and Demi Lovato as well as visits from Miss America 2009 Katie Stam, the fair board tried to appeal to all ages.

State fair officials expect to keep the extra days for the fair through 2011. Dates for the 2010 fair are Aug. 6-22.