Terri Clark to headline 2016 county fair

Posted 1/14/16

The Park County Fair Board has been working on the line-up of events for the July 26-30 fair over the past few months; the board recently got a commitment from Clark.

The Canadian musician has sold more than 5 million albums and had a half-dozen …

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Terri Clark to headline 2016 county fair

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Bump and Run to replace Knights of Valour show

A performance by country musician Terri Clark will headline the 2016 Park County Fair, which will also bring traditional grandstand events such as pig mud wrestling, motorbike racing, a demolition derby and a new Bump and Run race.

The Park County Fair Board has been working on the line-up of events for the July 26-30 fair over the past few months; the board recently got a commitment from Clark.

The Canadian musician has sold more than 5 million albums and had a half-dozen No. 1 country hits between the U.S. and Canada.

The county plans to pay Clark $20,000 for her performance. She typically charges around $25,000, but offered a discount because she was already planning to pass through this area between other stops, Park County Events Coordinator Echo Renner told fair board members.

The opportunity won over the board at their December meeting.

“I just feel when you have someone who was willing to drop some of it (their price) and is a name, let’s get ‘em,” Fair Board Chairman Steve Martin said, to agreement. Martin added that he’d “heard a lot of good reports” about Clark.

The board originally hoped to ink Cassadee Pope, a country singer who won the 2012 season of NBC’s vocal competition, “The Voice.” However, with it looking unlikely that they would be able to get Pope for a bargain, the board was happy to sign Clark.

The board hopes her show will prove more economical than the fair’s headlining performance in 2015.

Expenses for country musician Chris Cagle’s concert — which included his $25,000 contract — outpaced the revenue from the ticket sales for a more than $17,000 loss.

Beyond the thousands of dollars of savings on Clark’s contract, there will be fewer extra costs for her show — and there’s hope that staging the concert on the Friday night of the fair instead of Thursday could draw a bigger crowd.

All told, “you might start to break even on the concert,” board member Teecee Barrett said at Tuesday’s meeting.

The county’s budget is expected to be tight this year, but Park County commissioners explicitly told the board they were willing to put up money for a concert.

New to the fair’s grandstands in 2016 will be a Wednesday night “Bump and Run” race that’s being organized by Brock Ninker of Powell.

The format features demolition derby-type cars racing around a track with jumps and obstacles, Ninker explained. Contact — i.e. bumping — is allowed; Ninker described the contest as being similar to a “Figure 8” race, “just not quite as violent.”

Fair board members were enthusiastic about adding another vehicular event.

“If it involves loud noises and motors, it’s successful,” fair board member Troy Wiant summarized at November’s fair board meeting. “I’m really interested in increasing those types of events, because I don’t like all the red on this one.”

Wiant was referring to the 2015 performance by the Knights of Valour, which was the other grandstand event to lose money. The knights’ medieval jousting sold around 730 tickets — the fewest among the four ticketed events — and lost around $8,200.

In contrast, the demolition derby proved the fair’s biggest hit: it sold more than 1,600 tickets and turned a $12,000 profit shared with the local Lions Club. Ninker had proposed taking over the derby from the Lions, but the board said no thanks this year.

Meanwhile, the motorbike and other races featured in the fair’s 2015 Endurocross came out about $4,800 ahead. Whether the event will continue to be profitable for the fair in 2016 remains to be seen.

Powell organizer Nate Mainwaring has asked for substantially more money to run the Endurocross (saying last year’s payment didn’t cover his time and expenses) and he expects the switch from Friday night to Thursday will draw fewer racers. A couple fair board members plan to sit down with Mainwaring to work toward a compromise on the money.

As for the opening Tuesday night of the fair, the board plans to again put on pig mud wrestling with free admission.

The week’s free stage acts remain something of a work in progress, but will include the return of theatrical circus performers Mango and Dango, hypnotist Michael Mesmer and local cloggers with the addition of David Richardson’s West Texas Rattlesnake Show. A battle of local bands is set for Tuesday and Wednesday nights on the free stage.

The fair board also indicated it’s interested in setting aside an area on the grounds for a miniature “Maker Fair,” where members of Powell’s MakerSpace can show off technology and creations from the new community workshop. Renner, the county’s events coordinator, said showcasing the technology could draw in people who might not normally go to the fair.

Overall, fewer people attended the Park County Fair in 2015.

People bought a total of 7,482 daily or weekly passes. Those and parking pass sales brought in $48,520 in revenue. Fair attendance is believed to have sunk from 2014, but because admission was free on Wednesday and Thursday mornings in 2015, it’s difficult to accurately compare figures from the two years.

Renner said fair attendance generally dipped across Wyoming last year. The going theory is that the decline was an effect of dwindling oil and gas jobs in the state, she said.

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