The Covington County Fair had more people attend than last year and Chairman of the Kiwanis Fair Board Larry Avery said that it was due to an uptick in the economy.

“We had a great fair this year,” Avery said. “We counted 17,051 people that came to the fair this year. I think it has to do with an uptick in the economy honestly. People are more willing to come out and spend money.”

In 2016, 15,009 people showed up to the fair and last year there were a little more than 16K that showed up.

“We keep seeing an increase, which is really good,” Avery said. “Even despite a 20-minute close on Friday, we had a lot great turnout. I think if we didn’t have that weather delay we would have had more people.”

A sudden downpour Friday night momentarily halted rides and sent attendees scurrying for cover.

Saturday was the biggest turnout for the fair, with more than 4,000 people showing up.

Avery said that the biggest increase in sales was the funnel cakes.

“People really enjoyed the funnel cakes,” Avery said. “The Kiwanis Club provides those inside the building and we were very busy.”

Aside from Friday night’s small weather delay, the entire week was perfect fair weather, Avery said.

“The weather was good all week,” Avery said. “I think a couple of people were upset on Friday night because we had to close for 20 minutes. At 9:22 p.m., it started pouring down rain, but by 9:45 p.m., we opened right back up.”

The Kiwanis building is completely cleared out as of Monday, and now Avery is only waiting on exhibits to be picked up.

“Overall it was a great year for the fair,” Avery said. “We got the building cleared out now and we are just waiting on exhibits to be picked up.”