In spite of the blistering heat pestering more than a few attendees and the many critters roaming the fairgrounds last week, attendance to the 2016 Cass County Fair only saw a slight drop from last year.

While final numbers for the last day of paid attendance on Saturday are still being worked out, the Cass County Fair office estimates that the amount of people visiting the county fair last week was down around 2,800 people from last year. A breakdown of the attendance from Monday through Friday is as follows:

• Monday:  5,772

• Tuesday: 8,128

• Wednesday: 6,476

• Thursday: 6,574

• Friday: 7,055

The decline in attendance breaks the recent streak of growth the county fair had been having. Last year, 49,101 visited the fairgrounds during the event.

“Friday and Saturday were pretty good days, but it was not enough to bring it up over the total we had last year,” said Fair Association President Gail Peterson. “The heat really kept people away earlier in the week.”

The amount of money youth made during the livestock auctions also went down this year, to around $608,000, Peterson said.

In spite of the declines in these figures, the amount of animals entered into the fair went up again this year.

In addition, Thursday’s fan favorite Demolition Derby was once again a complete sellout. Saturday’s Monster Truck show was nearly sold out, with only 150 tickets left, according to the fair office.

Another success this year was the addition of Law Enforcement Day at the fair Wednesday, in which local police officers were admitted into the fair for free.

“We have always gotten a lot of support from police in the past,” Peterson said. “Whenever we are super busy, be it during a grandstand show or later at night, we have always had a lot of officers on the grounds helping to protect the public. We just wanted to show our appreciation for their time and work.”

As always, the fair association leader also commended the work of the hundreds of volunteers who support the fair board and fairgoers with their efforts, be it the superintendents of the many different 4-H animal shows or those ensuring that the grandstand events run smoothly, he said.

“At every part of the fair, no matter where you look, there are volunteers helping out,” Peterson said.