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The 2013 New Mexico State Fair will run consecutively beginning Wednesday, Sept. 11, through Sunday, Sept. 22, officials announced today.
The 2013 schedule is a repeat of the fair’s condensed schedule this year, which saw an increase in overall attendance. Attendance increased 1.9 percent over the previous year. The jump in total attendance reversed a two-year trend of declining attendance.
“For the first time since 2006, the New Mexico State Fair turned a nice profit,” said, noting that once the cost savings of condensing the Fair’s dates were factored into the final tally—costs such as additional utilities, security, labor and other overhead—the 2012 event was profitable.
“We set out in 2010 to give the State Fair back to the families of New Mexico, and to achieve two difficult but important goals: to increase attendance and return the Fair to financial solvency while improving the show we present every year,” said State Fair General Manager Dan Mourning in a statement. “We achieved those goals while also being cognizant of the fact that the State Fair needs to be the best dollar-for-dollar entertainment deal in the state, period, every year. That starts with establishing our dates early so we can get down to the business of booking the best entertainment we can get within our budget.
The State Fair is an enterprise fund, responsible for raising its own operating budget, which receives no state taxpayer funding.
“With the dates for our 75th Anniversary Fair now locked down, we have already set to work to make this one truly a fair to remember, with some surprise names in live entertainment and a slew of new Spectacular attractions designed to really blow the lid off in terms of what people have come to expect from the Fair,” Mourning said. “We’re very excited about what 2013 is going to mean for the Fair. ‘Go big, or go home,’ as they say, and we’re certainly not going home. People are going to be quite pleasantly surprised when we begin announcing our lineup and attractions early next year.”
