FAIRLEA, W.Va. — It may only be the second day of the exposition, but the first Saturday of the State Fair of West Virginia always draws the largest crowds. Proving the old adage that records are made to be broken, this year’s crowd did just that.
“This past Saturday was our biggest day ever,” the fair’s CEO, Kelly Tuckwiller Collins, told the board of directors and guests of the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation who gathered at the fairgrounds Wednesday for the GVEDC’s regular monthly meeting.
According to Collins, 33,000 people bought gate admission tickets that day. The fairgrounds’ gigantic free parking lot, which has accommodated the vehicles of upward of 50,000 people attending Greenbrier Classic concerts in the past, ran out of space at 2 p.m. Saturday. And receipts at the carnival were 11 percent higher than the previous record.
“It was an absolutely huge day for us,” Collins said.
Contributing factors to the record-setting Saturday crowd, Collins said, included the beautiful weather and the fact that school is already under way in most West Virginia counties, meaning many families can only attend the fair on weekends.
“It was kind of the ‘perfect storm…
