Popular entertainment and mostly favorable weather helped the 2007 Nebraska State Fair attract nearly 10,000 more people than last year.

The 138th State Fair drew 299,175 during its 11-day run, which ended Monday, said Christine Rasmussen, the fair’s marketing director. In comparison, 289,683 attended the fair last year.

The number translates to a 3.3 percent increase and it marks the fourth year in a row that fair attendance has grown. The 2007 event attracted the most fairgoers since 300,411 attended in 2001.

“I think it was a huge positive,”  said Barney Cosner, the fair’s executive director. “It’s always a goal to get more and more people to enjoy what the Nebraska State Fair has to offer.”

That goal appeared in jeopardy after the first five days of the fair left attendance figures in a deficit compared to the same days in 2006. Nothing kills attendance like oppressive heat and severe thunderstorms, which Lincoln had early in the week, Cosner said.

“Fairs are very geared to Mother Nature being kind,” said Cosner, who just completed his first fair in Nebraska but formerly managed the Wyoming State Fair and Rodeo.

Nicer weather and good entertainment turned losses into gains from Wednesday through Sunday. The 55,471 who attended Sunday represented the biggest single day of the 2007 fair and the largest one-day total since 70,021 attended on the same Sunday in 1999.

“Since 2003, we’ve increased by 60,000 people,” said Joseph McDermott, assistant director of the State Fair. “We’re pleased.”

While the fair’s attendance has grown, it remains well below the 389,000 who crowded State Fair Park in 1997. In that year, officials began reporting the actual number of fairgoers who passed through entrances rather than crowd estimates. The estimates had significantly inflated attendance.

Since then, attendance dropped until it hit a low in 2003. The fair had fallen on financial hard times and was at risk of failing entirely until voters approved an amendment to give the fair $2 million annually in lottery money.

Fair staff won’t have long to recover from long days and nights before they start planning ways to keep the attendance streak going.

“We’re excited to get ready for the 2008 fair,” Cosner said.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.