Much like the weather that visitors to the Cass County fairgrounds basked in throughout last week, the outlook appears sunny for organizers as the 164th Cass County Fair came to an end on Saturday.

This year saw a continuation of the recent rise in interest in the annual youth fair, with attendance, auction numbers and participation all exceeding last year’s figures, said Fair Association President Gail Peterson.

According to the fair front office, a total of 49,101 people visited the Cassopolis fairgrounds during days with paid admission, with daily breakdowns as follows:

Monday — 6,037

Tuesday — 9,056

Wednesday — 6,205

Thursday — 7,931

Friday — 7,613

Saturday — 12,259

The numbers are a slight improvement over last year’s paid attendance figure of 49,034.

“Last year was one of the better years we’ve had in awhile, and this year was up a bit from that,” Peterson said.

As with the previous fair, organizers are attributing the strong numbers to favorable weather conditions.

Officials are also crediting their Family $1 day on Saturday for again driving a large number of visitors to the fairgrounds, Peterson said.

Shows held at the fair’s grandstand performed strongly this year as well, with the demolition derby and monster truck exhibition selling out the venue, with close to 2,800 tickets sold, organizers said. Feedback to the free grounds entertainment acts was strong as well, with the newly introduced Bear Mountain Wildlife Encounter Show appearing to have the strongest interest from visitors, Peterson said.

Participation from members of local 4-H clubs was up slightly from last year as well, the fair president said.

“It wasn’t a huge difference, but a lot of the animal numbers were up,” Peterson said.

Despite the lack of poultry at this year’s fair, it didn’t have a significant impact on the wallets of youth exhibitors, as livestock auctions saw a significant boost this year as well, Peterson said. Bidders paid a total of $694,470 for small and large livestock displayed throughout the week, up from last year’s total of $626,749,  according to fair officials.

Volunteer manpower was another highlight of the 164th rendition of the county fair, with dozens of local families lending a hand with the shows and exhibitions, Peterson pointed out.

While the fair board has managed to wrangle up a strong base of support from the community over the years, Peterson said he was impressed by the number of younger volunteers that lent a hand to the exhibitors this year, with the former participants handing down their knowledge to the next generation of 4-H youth.

“Once you get hooked on the fair, you keep coming back,” Peterson said. “That’s what I like to see, all the families that keep coming back every year.”