Weather put a chill on Manatee County Fair attendance. But the gator bites sold like hotcakes

The 102nd edition of the Manatee County Fair is in the history books.

It won’t break the attendance of the 2017 fair, which set the all-time record of 182,600, fair director Dan West said Sunday.

When the thermometer plunged this past Wednesday and Thursday, it knocked the 2018 fair out of the running as a record-breaker, West added.

“We had a couple of nights when it was very cold, and we didn’t have a lot of people on the grounds,” West said. “But we have more than made up for it the other days. Our first weekend was fantastic. Then, our Friday night and Saturday were wonderful, and we have a great day going here Sunday. So, everyone is well pleased with the turnout, even with the cold weather we had.”

“This fair’s attendance is running about equal with the 2015 and 2016 fairs,” West added. “We will have to get numbers after today to see where we fall in there. We could surpass those two but we are not going break a record this year. I hate to say it. But we’ll be in the ballpark.”

It dawned warm for the final Sunday, and the midway was soon packed with people hungry for strawberry shortcakes at the Church On the Rock booth, pizza at New York Style Pizza, frog legs and gator bites at Suzy Q’s, along with other fair food and fun.

“We really think we had a good year even with the cold weather we had Wednesday and Thursday,” said Sheri Ketner co-leader with Debbie Connor of the strawberry shortcake booth at Church On the Rock. “We really think we made up for those two bad days on Saturday and Sunday. It was good.”

The church went through about 300 flats of strawberries, Ketner said.

Over at New York-Style Pizza, Billy Slater said the midway pizza vendor did well despite the near freeze.

“The cold weather hurt us a little bit, but other than that it was very good,” Slater said.

Susy Q’s, which offered fair-goers frog legs and alligator as well as chicken, did well despite the cold, said Rodney Teuton, co-owner of Susy Q’s with his wife, Susanne.

“We sold 80 pounds of frog legs, 80 pounds of alligator and 400 pounds of chicken,” Teuton said. “We did really good with what the weather was doing.”

Special Sunday for Larry Bustle

Last week, at the fair’s VIP luncheon, former Manatee County Commissioner Larry Bustle received the 2018 Distinguished Citizen Award. On Sunday, he was further honored for winning that award when his footprints, or, rather, his shoe prints, were cast in concrete.

“The good news is that I wasn’t in the shoes,” Bustle said after the ceremony near the main gate of the fair.

“There will be a bronze plaque along with the footprint that says Larry is the 2018 Distinguished Citizen of Manatee County,” West said. “We will turn that over to Manatee County, where it will join all the other footprints of the Distinguished Citizen winners since 1956.”

Bustle said he was deeply honored that he will join more than 60 other Manatee County dignitaries whose cement shoe prints are on display at the historic Manatee County Courthouse.

“What I will always remember about today is that a great man received a wonderful award,” Lydia Edith “Edie” Bustle said of her husband. “I appreciate their recognition of his contributions to our county and to society.”

Entertainment high point

Although Dan West is more in the public eye, Pat Kennedy, the Manatee County Fair Board president, does a lot behind the scenes.

Last Friday, he finally got the chance just to kick back and relax at the fair and he caught, what he felt, was the high point of the fair’s 2018 entertainment slate.

“The highpoint of the entertainment for me was Phil Vassar,” Kennedy said of the American country music artist famous for “Just Another Day in Paradise.” “He put on one of the best shows I have seen here in a long time. He’s a tremendous entertainer. He sang hit after hit after hit for a solid hour and a half, and it was great.”

600 livestock entries

The 2018 fair had just more than 600 livestock entries for the fair, among the best ever, West said.

“I got to give kudos to our 4-H programs here in Manatee County and all the leaders in 4-H, all the FFA advisers, all the middle and high schools for promoting the projects that they have,” West added. “It also takes a lot of volunteers to put that youth livestock program. We are happy how everything worked out. The sales went great. We are proud of our young people in Manatee County, we really are.”

“We have probably one of the largest participation of any county in Florida,” Kennedy added of the youth livestock program at the fair this year. “They poured their all into their projects and it showed in the arena.”

This story was originally published January 21, 2018 at 7:32 PM with the headline "Weather put a chill on Manatee County Fair attendance. But the gator bites sold like hotcakes."