Even behind the scenes, all's fair for annual event

Local firms accept loss of business, heavy traffic

The Topsfield Fair is expected to attract 500,000 visitors over the next 10 days. Below, Maureen Goodwin (left) and her brother Neil work on putting up a banner at the fairgrounds. (Photos by Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)

Pickup trucks haul food trailers, and carnival rides roll into the Topsfield Fairgrounds. Workers prep exhibition halls, touch up paint on miles of fence, and complete last-minute landscaping chores. Behind the scenes, local businesses and law enforcement make plans and adjust expectations in anticipation of the estimated 500,000 visitors who will converge on the town during the annual Topsfield Fair, which opens tomorrow.

It's not exactly business as usual. But Topsfield merchants have grown accustomed to rolling with the punches throughout the course of the annual two-week event. Lower sales revenues and the traffic headaches go with the territory, doing business in a town that hosts the country's oldest agricultural fair, held at its existing location on Route 1 since 1910.

"I'm very pro-fair," said Jack Donaher, general manager of the Essex County Co-op, a farm and garden supplier across from the fair's main entrance. "The fair promotes the agriculture business and it is probably one of the highest taxpayers in the town."

The co-op, along with many other businesses and residents along Route 1, rents its lots for fair parking. Petco, a store selling everything from dog food to saltwater tropical fish that is located on Route 1 just north of the fair entrance, loses half of its business and the bulk of its parking spaces during the fair. The store's landlord ropes off the parking lot for fairgoers, charging the standard $8 fee for weekends and Columbus Day, $7 for weekdays. Petco gets none of it.

"After 2 p.m., we become a dead zone," store manager Bob Howell said. "Nobody shops during the fair. If we normally do $2,000 worth of business on any given day, on fair days, it's about $1,000."

Despite the drop in sales, Howell and his crew look forward to the fair. They're often found in front of the store on warm fall evenings, listening to the live music wafting from the fairgrounds.

"We love the fair and the people who attend," Howell said. "It's great for business in the long-term due to free advertisement when people come in looking for an ATM, because the one at the fair's main gate is always running out of money."

Some businesses, such as Signature Motor Cars, a seller of used luxury automobiles, just close their doors for the duration of the fair.

"With the traffic volume, it doesn't make sense to open," said Signature employee John Spano. "We close during the fair and lease the space to someone else for parking. We're better off in the long run."

Mike and Beth Dunbar, owners of MBD Outdoor, experience a noticeable drop in business when the fair comes to town. They use the two-week break in normal business to catch up on work at their shop, which specializes in repair and sale of commercial and residential lawnmowers, snow blowers, and farm equipment.

"It's free advertisement," said Mike Dunbar. "But customers avoid the place like the plague. For us, it's catch-up time."

While a supporter of the fair, Dunbar has reservations about newly established restrictions on abutters, who have received free passes to the fair for a number of years. "We used to send a bunch of people across the street to the fair on their breaks with free passes. Now we can send in only one person per day," he said.

Dunbar said he doesn't rent parking spaces on his property because it is more of a hassle than it's worth.

"The fair helps out the town," added Dunbar. "The local police do a great job and they like the extra money from details."

Topsfield police hire officers from seven surrounding communities to direct traffic and provide added police presence within the fairgrounds.

The fair also has added more ticket-takers to speed up lines through entrance gates and set up satellite parking on weekends at Masconomet Regional High School for $5, with a free shuttle bus to and from the fair.

Police make several side streets one-way during the fair and limit access to residents only on certain routes.

"We run into this every year," said Topsfield police Sergeant James Harris. "We just request that drivers be patient. Route 1 is only a two-lane, two-way road, so obviously we do have a problem.

"We hope visitors will use satellite parking to help decrease traffic volume around the fairgrounds," Harris added.

Fair spokeswoman Sally O'Maley said the fair gets an average of 80,000 visitors on weekend days and 35,000 on weekdays.

Last year, the Topsfield Fair returned about $360,000 to the local economy in the form of salaries for police and fire details, administrative, permit and off-season fees, and real estate taxes of $73,000.

"We have a great fair, but we understand some of the pressures that are faced by residents and local businesses," O'Maley said.