CEDARBURG — Festival season has turned into fair season in southeast Wisconsin this weekend.
The Ozaukee County Fair in Cedarburg and Wisconsin State Fair are happening at the same time. You might think the two overlapping would hurt the smaller county fair, but that’s actually not the case.
"We're not comparing apples to apples. It's more like apples to oranges. We are the little country fair," said Mark Matter, the vice president of the Ozaukee County Agricultural Society.
The Ozaukee County Fair ends on the first Sunday of August every year. It just so happens the two overlap.
"This is the last year that we overlap. Then we go two years where we don’t overlap, and then we go back and overlap with them for probably five or six years," Matter said.
This doesn't affect attendance too much, Matter said. As many as 30,000 to 40,000 people come to the Ozaukee County Fair every year regardless of overlap.
"The only place that we notice any difference at all is in our commercial building. Some of the big window people, for example, don’t have enough people to man two booths," Matter said.
"We're not comparing apples to apples. It's more like apples to oranges. We are the little country fair." — Mark Matter, vice president of the Ozaukee County Agricultural Society
The Ozaukee County Fair is one of the last fairs that's free to attend. The fair continues through Sunday and is open from 8 a.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday. Sunday hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
