Page 13 - BusinessWest September 2, 2024

Ride of Passage
Big E Set to Begin Its Annual 17-day Run
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
“It rained so
hard one day, the midway never opened, and that had never, ever happened before.”
Gene Cassidy says presidential election years are generally good ones, attendance-wise, for large fairs like the Big E.
As he explains it, the general population, bombarded with
information about candidates, issues, and polls, is looking for a break from all that.
“They want to get out and get away from the news,” said Cassidy, president and CEO of the Big E, adding that this year, people may really want to get away from the news, considering the seemingly heightened tensions around this year’s race.
If they do, that would certainly help the Big E — which will take place Sept. 13-29 — bounce back from a somewhat down year in 2023 when it comes to attendance, due to seemingly relentless rain that started early in the fair, almost wiped out the middle weekend, continued through the 17-day stretch, and led to something Cassidy had never seen in his more than 30 years of involvement with the fair.
“It rained so hard one day, the midway never opened, and that had never, ever happened before,” he told BusinessWest as he quick- ly did some math in his head. “Let’s see, that’s 30 fairs times 17 days ... that’s 510 days; one day out of 510, the midway was closed.”
Pulling out a white book in which he keeps detailed information about the weather, attendance, and other matters, Cassidy noted that the fairgrounds received 1.7 inches of rain the first Monday of the Big E’s 2023 run, and then on the middle weekend (Friday, Sat- urday, and Sunday) it received 5.1 inches of rain, a half-inch more than the region typically receives, on average, for the entire month of September.
Overall attendance was down about 11% from the year prior, he
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SEPTEMBER 2, 2024 13
Gene Cassidy is hoping for less rain in 2024 — and the continuation of a trend whereby presidential election years have been good for large fairs.