Fair director reflects back as 2024 Big Sky Country State Fair wraps up

BOZEMAN — After months and weeks of preparation, the 2024 Big Sky Country State Fair ended on Sunday evening.

"People have been using this space to gather for over a century now," says Fair Director Caitlin Quisenberry.

She put in a lot of hard work planning the fair this year.

"We were so excited to book Ludacris this year. It was the year for it. He was just playing at the Super Bowl, and he's in the State Farm commercials. He's such an iconic star, so we were happy we were able to book him for $200,000," she says.

Quisenberry says their attendance was down compared to last year.

"Our attendance numbers were a little bit soft, so I expect our revenue numbers to be a little soft. But that's okay. You know, when you look at 2023, it was sort of an anomaly. Those numbers were super high, but when you compare us to 2022, the year before, we are on the same trajectory," she says.

Although numbers were down, Quisenberry says customer satisfaction was at an all-time high. Gallatin Event Rental employees said the fair was bustling.

"Yeah, every time we were here, there were way more vendors than last year, and everyone was just setting up stuff," one of the employees says.

With lots of planning and preparation, they put in a lot of work.

"We've been out here a couple of days working pretty late nights and just putting up a lot of stuff for these guys," he says.

Quisenberry says the setup paid off. The new water filling stations refilled over 1,500 water bottles.

"The cooling stations were a huge hit. The water bottle refill station was an amazing hit. People were having a good time, and our heat-related injuries were down," she says.

It was a year for many firsts.

"The sheriff just posted it. They only arrested one person this year, and that's a big one for us," Quisenberry says.

They are already preparing and making plans for the fair in 2025.

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