The 2021 edition of the King County Fair was, by all accounting measures, a roaring success.

That was the verdict delivered by Rene Popke, general manager of the Enumclaw Expo Center, during the Aug. 10 gathering of the Enumclaw City Council.

“I’m thrilled to share some of the numbers I have for you tonight,” she said, detailing operations that doubled – and in some cases tripled – numbers posted during 2019. Everything she explained was in contrast to 2019, ignoring the COVID scene of 2020.

Before offering the hard, cold facts, Popke harkened back to a time in early 2021 when it wasn’t certain a fair could even be staged. In January and February, she said, there was, perhaps, a 60 percent chance a fair would be allowed.

“I definitely was holding out some hope,” she said. But, “the vibe across the state wasn’t great.” There are 67 fairs that traditionally operate in Washington and some chose early to skip this year.

In May, the state lifted capacity limits on events like fairs, Popke said, and everything moved rapidly from there.

It was a bit disconcerting, she admitted, that Enumclaw hosted the first fair of the season.

But, it the end, the numbers were worth boasting about.

“Our gross profits for this year were over $600,000,” Popke said, while noting that expenses were kept to $170,000, allowing for a net profit of a bit more than $449,000. By comparison, 2019’s fair netted $189,000.

Not knowing what to expect when the gates opened, Popke and her fellow employees and board members kept a close watch on outgoing dollars. “We ran a tight ship and I have an incredible staff to thank for that,” she said.

Breaking down the fair’s four-day run, Popke offered the following figures.

• Thursday, July 15: Opening-day attendance more than tripled from 2019. This year’s crowd was pegged at 7,500; two years ago, the fair’s first day saw 2,400 customers. Carnival sales hit $40,000 this year, doubling the 2019 sum.

• Friday: “It was just packed,” Popke said. “It was shoulder-to-shoulder.” With the evening’s popular rough-stock rodeo, attendance reached 15,000 this time around, tripling the numbers of two years ago. Carnival sales hit $70,000, more than twice as much as 2019.

• Saturday: The day included a barrel racing event that attracted 190 riders who were chasing $5,000 in prize money. The single-day attendance was 20,000, or twice as many attendees as two years ago. Carnival sales again more than doubled, from $54,000 in 2019 to $114,000 this year.

• Sunday: On a day that began with “cowboy church” sponsored by Grace Point NW and a pancake breakfast for all the youth who were showing livestock, attendance again tripled from 2019 – from 5,000 to 15,000. Carnival sales also tripled to $82,000.

Among the other highlights: livestock exhibits grew by 60 percent, the rodeo sold out, and more than 21,000 scones were sold. The Expo Center’s RV park was filled, Popke said, and local hotels reported they were at 100 percent capacity. A study of receipts showed visitors from 19 states other than Washington. And the vendor who services the center’s ATMs scrambled to find additional cash to keep machines stocked.

There was one area where this year’s totals did not double or triple the figures from 2019, Popke said; rather, they jumped ten-fold. On the Friday of the fair, bar sales in 2019 reached $1,800 and this year skyrocketed to $18,000.

While excited about the success of this year’s King County Fair, Popke offered a reminder that the Expo Center operation is coming off a pandemic-plagued year that was mostly dismal.

“This is getting me caught up,” she said, noting that 2020 was a year for refunding money and counting lost revenues.