- Workers on Tuesday broke down facilities at the recently concluded Allentown Fair
- Final attendance numbers for the six-day festival will be determined and released within a week
- The fair usually attracts around 200,000 visitors each year
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Albert Berghold craned his neck Tuesday as he squinted from the shadow beneath a colorful Du Pont Motorsports ball cap and into the blinding sun, illuminating on his face the lines of 84 years of living.
“With all the heat at this year’s fair, I’d have thought we’d have had better sales,” Berghold, an Allentown native, said while breaking down his snow cones stand on the Allentown Fairgrounds.
“You’d think this is what people would want — something cold! — on such hot days here.”
The fair concluded Monday.
For 65 years, Berghold has sold snow cones at the fair. The company is not his, though he first started working for D&L Concessions of Allentown in 1958.
While snow cones sales did not go through the roof this year, the cold, refreshing treats would have been a frozen blessing for workers who were breaking down structures at the fair Tuesday.
Cleaning up after the party
Yes, the fair is over, and just about everything was coming down — amusement rides, collapsible food vendor stands, carnival game stands, everything.
Everything, that is, except the temperature.
The 171st edition of the fair concluded another successful year after six days of music, food and fun.
But on the seventh day, no one rested.
Workers battled temps that soared to the low 90s, with humidity that made it feel five degrees hotter.
Cleaning up after the fair was an affair Tuesday at the fairgrounds.
Trailers and trucks and forklifts and vans and cranes toting away giant pieces of the fair to return the fairgrounds to normal. The operation was akin to sweeping up Times Square after the New Year’s Eve ball drop.
Or figuratively dumping the Christmas tree at the curb at holiday’s end.
“This year’s fair was great."Jessica Ciecwisz, director of marketing and entertainment, Allentown Fair
The party was over. Workers worked. All in the vice grip of an unforgiving sun.
One worker was asked about the physical demands of breaking down the fair in incredibly oppressive heat.
“Well, it’s my job,” he said.
The man mopped his brow, lifted a bottle of water, shook it as one would a snow globe, and added, “Just need to stay hydrated and everything will turn out OK.”
Great fair, no grandstand sellouts
Everything, it appears, turned out OK at this year’s fair, according to Jessica Ciecwisz, the director of entertainment and marketing.
“This year’s fair was great,” she said Tuesday at the fairgrounds. “The weather was great; we had no rain. Sunday and Monday were pretty hot. And the crowds were really good.”
When the final numbers are tabulated by an accounting firm, total attendance should be at or near the fair’s record of 200,000 over the six-day event, Ciecwisz said.
Those figures are expected to be finalized in a week.
“We had a good showing at the vast majority of shows, but didn’t sell any out."Allentown Fair Director of Entertainment and Marketing Jessica Ciewisz
“They go through our receipts and give us the number,” Ciecwisz said. “We have our gate numbers and we get input from employees that give us an idea. It’s not a perfect number, but it’s usually pretty close" to the accounting firm’s findings.
This year’s fair showcased six headline acts on the grandstand stage, an increase of two acts from last year.
Headliners such as REO Speedwagon and Styx on the same bill, Southern hip hop star Nelly and country music superstar Keith Urban thrilled the crowds, but none sold out the 10,000-capacity grandstand.
“We had a good showing at the vast majority of shows, but didn’t sell any out,” Cieswisz said.
When asked to provide ticket sales for the grandstand performers, Cieswisz said she was contractually forbidden to release those numbers.
'It's in my blood'
The 171st edition of the fair is over. Securing the entertainment for the 172nd edition already is under way.
“I think we put our first offer out in June for next year,” Cieswisz said. “In a perfect year, we’d like to have our first announcement for sale before Christmas, so people can purchase tickets for Christmas presents. At least one act.
“In a perfect world we’d like to have all our shows up for sale by the end of April. That would be awesome. But that’s in a perfect world.”
“It’s Fair Week. Why wouldn’t I be here? I love the people because everyone’s so friendly. So, yeah, I’ll be here. It’s in my blood.”Allentown Fair snow cone salesman Albert Berghold
One year from now, God willing, Berghold will return to the fair to hawk snow cones. The fair, he said, is a week-long stretch of drinking in all that the fair has to offer.
“I expect to be back next year,” Berghold said, loading supplies in the back seat of his car.
“It’s Fair Week. Why wouldn’t I be here? I love the people because everyone’s so friendly. So, yeah, I’ll be here. It’s in my blood.”
