State Fair numbers are in: Concerts are popular

PALMER — The Alaska State Fair reports it set a concert attendance record this year, if not an overall attendance record.

According to a fair press release, 33,392 concert tickets were sold this year, as opposed to 30,251 last year.

“The favorites at this year’s fair were Kendrick Lamar with 4,848 tickets sold, Brantley Gilbert with 4,722 tickets sold and 3 Doors Down with 4,701 tickets sold,” according to the press release.

As for overall attendance, the fair notes it was down slightly from 2012: 288,499 people passed through the gates this year as opposed to 305,721 last year.

“The rain and inclement weather was likely a major contributing factor,” the release says. “Some improvements were also made to ticket scanning procedures at the gate this year, which allowed the fair to more accurately track the number of paid fairgoers.”

Other records set this year include new statewide records for giant plants: an 89.25-inch-long gourd, a 1,182-pound pumpkin and a sunflower with a 20-inch head.

More numbers the fair released from this year’s celebration:

• 75,426 fairgoers and 1,296 students on school trips visited the “King Tut: Wonderful Things from the Pharaoh’s Tomb” exhibit.

• 8,600 cups of Twister Creek IPA — a Denali Brewing Co. beer that won the right to fair taps at a brewfest in 2012 — were served in fair beer gardens and bars.

• $124,000 was raised in the 4-H auction through the sale of 73 animals.

• $888 went to the winner of the Cabbage Classic Lottery, Laurel Bennett, whose guess of 91 pounds was closest to the weight of the winner of the Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off.