63rd fair attracted one of largest crowds ever

The 63rd annual Navajo Nation Fair will probably go down as one of the best attended fairs in the tribe's history.

The Window Rock fairgrounds was packed on Saturday with one of the biggest crowds in the event's history and fair officials are saying that when the dust settles, the eight-day event may have attracted more than 150,000 people, with as many as 90,000 coming through the turnstiles on the weekend.

What's going to help attendance this year has been the fact that fair officials, for the first time in the event's history, has been cracking down on the number of free passes that were distributed in light of an audit by the tribe's Office of the Auditor General which came down hard on the fair office this past year for giving out too many free passes.

"We met with security personnel every day and explained who would be getting free passes," said this year's fair manager, David James.

The passes this year were limited to a few sponsors and fair workers. Council delegates and others who were on the free pass list in the past were told that the fair wouldn't be able to provide them with free passes this year.

"We had a few complaints but when we explained the reason why, I think people understood," said James.

The only major problem during this year's fair centered around the carnival and an injury to a teenager who was riding on the Ferris wheel on Saturday when the cab he was in overturned and threw him out.

Navajo police officials said the report on the incident is still being worked on and won't be released until later this week.

James said he was called over to the carnival area shortly after the accident occurred. When he got there, he said he saw the teenager sitting up.

"He seemed to be okay,"  he said.

Carnival officials investigated the accident and didn't come up with a clear explanation of what caused it.

James said he was told that the problem was not mechanical.

It's possible, he said, that the  cab got caught up on something, causing it to overturn. In many of these types of accidents, he said, it's caused by someone leaning over too far.

"Everything was checked out and nothing was found wrong with the ride itself," he said, adding that the ride went back into service once the investigation was done and there were no other reports of problems with it throughout the fair.

The big question - did the fair this year break even? - won't be answered for a couple of more weeks as fair officials close out their books and talk to the various committee directors to see what bills are outstanding.

Past events lost more than $100,000 but a crackdown on expenses is expected to reduce the costs for this year's fair by tens of thousands of dollars as fair officials have been looking at the bottom line.

For example, this year's main attraction, Bucky Covington, was nowhere near as expensive as last year's performer, Sugarland, and he was able to pack the stands, providing needed revenue.

"I'm pretty confident that we have been able to cover all of our expenses," James said.

The weather cooperated as well, he said. While there was rain, it came at times when it didn't affect attendance but helped by keeping down the dust.

"The weather was super," he said, adding that it was not as hot as it had been in past years. "I even saw some people put on jackets in the evening."

Fair officials didn't see any complaints this year from fairgoers about the lack of restroom facilities or their condition as they had in past years.

An extra 20 port-a-potties were put around the fairgrounds this year and James said the two companies that supplied them spent a lot of time making sure that they were cleaned.

"As soon as they got to the end of the line serving them, they started all over again," he said.

This year's parade - which also seemed to be one of the longest in the fair's history - didn't cause delays in getting the rodeo started as it has in the past, mainly because fair officials decided to start it an hour early this year.

Starting at 8 a.m. meant that by the time the rodeo started at noon, people had a chance to get to the fairgrounds when in the past, they would still be on the parade route watching the tail end of the parade at noon.

James said that the parade this year also seemed to go a little faster.

"There weren't as many gaps," he said.

James said that crews will be spending this week cleaning up the fairgrounds - large crowds mean large amounts of trash - while fair officials continue to close out the books and prepare for a meeting with members of the Resource Committee in the next few weeks to report on how well this year's fair went.

Fair officials will also begin making plans for the 2010 Navajo Nation Fair, which already is looking to be a record-breaker because it will be the last one that will occur during Joe Shirley Jr.'s administration.

This is the first time since Peterson Zah stepped down as president in 1996 that a president has known when his administration will end. Since Shirley can't run again because of term limits, officials at the president's office have been talking about making the 2010 a celebration of Shirley's eight years in office.

As a result, more money may be made available that will allow to make the fair to be bigger and to have bigger entertainment acts.

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