Back to normal
Three days after tragedy, fair takes up regular routines
Food row at the Ohio State Fair was crowded with people looking for corn dogs, funnel cakes and sugary lemonade. The agriculture barns were full of loud sheep and kids excited to see or show animals.
Even the weather was perfect. Just like a Saturday at the fair was supposed to be.
The only thing missing were the excited shrills and shrieks coming from the rides.
It’s been three days since a tragic malfunction on a ride named Fire Ball caused the death of 18-year-old
Tyler Jarrell and sent seven other riders to the hospital. Three of the victims remained in critical condition as of Saturday night.
But as investigators were still piecing together what happened, most fair attendees and vendors were ready to begin moving on.
Most of the rides have been shut down since Wednesday’s tragedy. Investigators and fair officials said they might open up more as they complete their inspections. The smaller Kiddieland rides reopened on Friday, as did the Giant Slide and the Sky Riders.
Those closures and the news of what happened seemed to keep many away from the fairgrounds.
Friday’s attendance was down more than 15,000 from a year ago, said fair spokeswoman Alicia Shoults. Thursday’s attendance was down more than 13,000 compared to 2016.
About 35,902 people attended the fair on Thursday and 42,403 on Friday, Shoults said. Attendance figures were not available for Saturday.
“The inspectors are going through everything with a fine tooth comb; they’ll probably be the safest rides in the country,” said Ronald Doege, co-owner of six Pronto Pups corn dog stands.
Doege, of Pensacola, Florida, has experienced a hit in some of his stand’s sales. At the stand in front of the Celeste Center on Saturday he said the sales at that location were on par Wednesday and Thursday, and down just a little Friday. Sales at a location by the Midway were down dramatically.
“It’s probably 60 percent down,” he said. “It relies on flow back and forth from the big rides to the small rides.”
Still, Doege won’t close that stand. His father-in-law has been going to the fair for 40 years, and “the fair has bounced back every time before,” he said.
“Everyone’s happy to be here and just thankful they’re all doing OK,” said Madi Baker, 15, of Plain City, who was working at Miller’s Olde Fashioned Ice Cream.
Jeannene Judson of Bowling Green came out to the fair with her family for her daughter’s 4-H competition.
As Judson, her daughter Hannah, 13, and other family friends crowded around a table in the Taste of Ohio food building, Hannah lamented not being able to ride the rides.
“I love rides. I was upset because I wanted to ride,” said Hannah, who hasn’t been scared off by the accident. “It was kind of more of a one in a million thing. I doubt it’ll happen again.”
The show barns, however, seemed popular.
Traffic inside the Shoppes at North Commercial barn was heavy, and the vendors inside didn’t seem to run into the slow sales those outside experienced.
“I thought it would be dead and we’ve been very busy,” said Patsy Ryan, owner of The Nut Shack. Her husband, Craig, said sales are better than last year, when it was broiling outdoors.
Across the grounds at the agriculture barns, it was just like any other day at the fair.
Karen Holley of Bowling Green was watching her grandson, 15-month-old Chance Holley, play with the calves the family will show Sunday inside the beef barn.
“It’s not affected anything in any of the livestock barns,” Holley said. Beside Holley was Samantha Wallace of Kansas, Ohio. The 16-year-old shows her cows at the fair and doesn’t usually have time for rides.
She’s noticed more people coming through the beef barn and stopping to ask questions than during a normal fair year.
Holley and Wallace like the added traffic to their little corner of the fair.
“Anytime we can promote livestock in general is good,” Holley said.
“A lot of people don’t know (about animals),” Wallace said. “A lot of people still think chocolate milk comes from brown cows.”