HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Kansas State Fair announced an increase in attendance for this year’s event from last year.  Officials say the great weather, along with new programming helped boost Kansas State Fair attendance by about 3% in 2019.

More than 337,400 people came to the state’s largest gathering, which ended Sunday. Those figures don’t include visitors who came in free before 11 a.m. on the fair’s kickoff day — Friday, Sept. 6. Fair officials estimate another 6,000 to 10,000 people strolled through the gates on that first morning. About 328,000 people attended the 2018 Kansas State Fair.

“This year’s fair took an already-wonderful Kansas event to new heights, bringing residents from all across the state together to celebrate everything that makes Kansas so special,” General Manager Robin Jennison said. “We had beautiful weather, and we also made some positive improvements.”

The fair launched a new logo and new brand in January that focused on “Celebrating All Things Kansas.” To incorporate the mission, the fair added an Explore Kansas Festival the first weekend, which showcased more than 40 Kansas communities in Gottschalk Park. The event was so successful that community officials have expressed an interest in coming back in 2020 to help expand the festival.

The fair ended its 10 days on a high. The final Sunday focused on promoting Kansas outdoor tourism with children and families learning more about fishing and shooting sports. The fair’s first-ever Pronto Pup eating contest was so successful it will be expanded next year. The All-Star Monster Truck Tour packed the grandstand with more than 5,000 people attending the event. Children 5 and under were free and were not included in that count.

“This event replaced the Outlaw Truck and Tractor Pull, which drew about 2,500 people for the past several years,” Jennison said. “We wanted to find a family-friendly event and the monster trucks worked. Many fairgoers told me that it was the most people they have seen in our grandstands in a long time. It was a great show and a great way to end the fair.”

Fair officials are still figuring vendor revenue. However, many vendors said the strong weekend crowds will help boost this year’s bottom line. Pat Repp with North American Midway Entertainment, the fair’s carnival company, called it one of the best fairs the company has experienced in several decades. The carnival saw a 13.3% increase in Midway sales over 2018.  “That is the highest gross in the history of the Kansas State Fair on the carnival side,” Repp said. “We had perfect weather. The attendance was awesome. The fair did a great job with promotions. We had one of those dream fairs where everything worked out and we hope to keep up the momentum next year.”

Jennison noted while there were many successes, there are always areas that need improvement. Those changes will be explored in the coming months as the staff begins to work on the 2020 fair.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Concerns are increasing over a portion of the Landmark building at 5th and Main after it was discovered that brickwork is pulling away from the structure. The cracks are located on the northwest corner of the building and extend several floors up the side.

It may force the city to close the alleyway in the interest of safety. “Closing the alley creates potential problems,” City Manager John Deardoff said. “But I’m not sure the city wants to spend $30,000 to shore a building that they don’t own.” The city has had to expend funds to keep the building secure and board up windows that are constantly broken. It’s a problem that has plagued that empty building for years.

Deardoff says they won’t make any decision on the alleyway until they get a better idea of how to deal with the building. The building does fall under the international property maintenance code and numerous violations have been recorded on the structure but the owner has shown no interest in making any repairs. Deardoff says they would like to see the building stay intact hope that someone will buy it and make improvements.

A chance to sell it passed by several years ago when a group wanted to turn the building into a senior living complex. The proposal died when the group could not secure tax credits from the state. Still, the building is in pretty good shape. “We really kind of want to keep it together,” Deardoff said. “It’s still pretty structurally sound overall. That brick giving away is the same thing that’s happened at the Stevens building. They received $200,000 from the state to repoint all of that.”

Deardoff says the city doesn’t want to close the alleyway but if it becomes a safety hazard they may have no choice.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — An extensive renovation project is underway at the Cosmosphere. The project includes construction of the CosmoKids interactive area, design and construction of a new museum entrance and exit — allowing for increased guest accessibility — upgrades and improvements to the Germany Gallery, and creating a fully interactive area for both the new Liquid Galaxy display and the virtual reality interactive currently available at the entrance of the museum.

“The last significant upgrade date was 1997, so over 20 years ago was the last time people really saw something new,” Cosmosphere President Jim Remar said. “We’ve done some gallery improvements throughout the facility, but this is the first real significant investment and addition of new programming.”

Remar says one of the major additions will be designed for younger visitors. “We’re going to add a new CosmoKids discovery area that will provide hands-on activities for kids two through six,” Remar said. Some other features of the new project include the installation of a new mission simulator for Cosmosphere Camp 2020, featuring a capsule-based simulator and landing vehicle along with new carpet and lighting in the rotunda.

The work will require some areas of the museum to be closed off for a short time. “We’ll close the main entrance in the Germany Gallery and the first part of the Cold War exhibit for a period of time,” Remar noted. “We’ll be looking to get visitors back in there as soon as possible so we will do some rerouting, but it shouldn’t impact the overall experience.”

If all goes as planned, the new renovation and additions will be finished in March of 2020.