We’ve been hearing it everywhere we go: This year’s edition of the Grant County Fair was the best in a long time. Fair manager Mindy Winegar and her crew always do a good job, but by all accounts, everything this year was just better somehow.

You can certainly see it in the numbers. As Winegar told Blue Mountain Eagle reporter Neil Nisperos in an after-action interview for a story in this week’s paper, attendance was up 15% over last year, with about 15,000 visitors over the course of the fair, compared with around 13,000 in 2022. More than 2,000 people, some from as far away as New England, turned out for the Josh Turner concert in the Iron Triangle Arena on Friday night, and more than 900 showed up to see Trever Hamsher’s fighting bulls competition on Saturday.

And, as many people have commented, there was just more for all those people to see and do at this year’s fair. According to Winegar, there were 74 more exhibitors and six more vendors this time around. More exhibits and more vendors translates into a better experience for fair attendees — which is likely to make them want to come back and do it again next year.

The Grant County Fair Parade on Saturday morning, led by Grand Marshal Tinka Oliver along with Fair and Rodeo Queen Laramie Kiser and her twin sister, Princess Lavina, has also been getting glowing reviews, with numerous observers noting the strong participation and spectator turnout.

It had to help that the weather cooperated — it wasn’t too hot, it didn’t rain and we weren’t inundated by wildfire smoke. As Winegar commented in our interview, “We were lucky there.”

Nor could it hurt that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to fade into our collective rearview mirror. Slowly but surely, people seem to be relaxing more and more as we gain more distance from those dark days of business closures, school shutdowns and mask requirements.

Whatever mysterious mix of factors contributed to make the 2023 Grant County Fair such a great success, we’ll take it. The fair brings people in Grant County together like nothing else, and that’s nothing but good for this community.

Our congratulations and gratitude to Winegar and her staff, as well as the fair board members and the small army of dedicated volunteers whose hard work gave us such a great fair this year. Here’s hoping they can find a way to top themselves in 2024.