Carnival & Fair News

Chilly rain dominated the opening of the 2025 South Florida Fair, but the three weekend format of the event enabled the fait to compensate and finish strong. The first five days of the fair saw solid rain, according to Matt Wallsmith. President & CEO. South Florida Fair & Palm Beach County Expositions, Inc. “It was heavy misted rain, enough to keep people away, all day long. But we run 17 days, which gives us three weekends and that gave us a little rain insurance.”

Attendance reached 406,570, a dip of about 5,000 from 2024 and the entire run racked up six record attended days once the Sunshine State returned to its usual stature. For Wallsmith, losing a percentage point or so on a year-to-year basis was an acceptable achievement for his first fair in the captain's chair. “Of course you always want to break every record that exists, but the weather didn't cooperate.”

Spending Strength

Mother Nature may have been less than optimum, but Wallsmith's freshman year at the helm was successful. Fairgoers turned out for this iconic event and were upbeat, enthusiastic and heavily spending. “Per capita spending of food increased by 6.5 percent over last year while midway spending increased by about 10 percent over 2024,” he said.

Some of the per-cap upticks could be attributed to nominal price increases across the fair, including midway wristbands, food and other areas of the fair. “Spending was pretty similar to last year. Prices were up a little here and there, but not too expensive. We are affordable family entertainment, wholesome fun.”

Inflation, while noticeable, may not have impeded fairgoer exuberance, price promotions were more in demand than any year post-lockdown. Two-Dollar-Tuesdays were held every week and a BOGO Thursdays were a success. “Each Thursday was very successful, an increase of up 300 percent over previous Thursdays. Weekends were strong and people were spending and it's worth it for $15 to see the free science exhibits and magic shows. We try to keep things cheap. But the price promotions were popular, I think it's a good way to push people off to the slower days. People are always going to come on the busy days.”

It may have been Wallsmith's first time as manager, but not his first South Florida Fair. Wallsmith replaced the retiring Vicki Chouris but has been with the fair as CFO for 26 years, overseeing operations. This expertise was applied in 2025 as he implemented new policies that reduced wait-times for entering the fair. ‘I'm really, really happy with how our parking guys handled traffic and parking. You don't want to have people come all the way out here for the fair then sit in traffic, it ruins their experience.”

Wallsmith negotiated with nearby business, adding more than 1,500 additional parking spaces. On weekends, the fair ran a free shuttle bus from a remote location, were patrons could park free. “We had a police escort accompany the shuttle bus so it wouldn't be stuck in traffic. We promoted it and it worked very well.”

New Roles

Resolving operational issues came a little bit easier to this South Florida Fair veteran than the public relations aspects related to the job. “I had a great time, we had a good fair,” he said. “There are things you see that you want to change, and we did that to the parking. But learning from the past is part of job. In the new job, I had to run board meetings, talk in front of organizations like the Kiwanis Clubs, do interviews with news reporters and live news broadcasts,  I was more reluctant in getting used to that.”

He's spent much of his adult life working for the fair, thinking and talking about it constantly, but talking about the fair in public “made me nervous. I like talking about the fair, but talking about the fair in front of 400 people at a Chambers of Commerce was not my thing.”

To help make it his thing he hired a PR-coach. “I asked someone who had being doing it a while to coach me and that helped. I definitely became more relaxed talking to reporters.”

In addition to expanding parking options, Wallsmith oversaw new security measures. Last year, the South Florida Fair had an incident with disruptive teens that plagued midways throughout the continental United States with a melee that involved more than 200 juveniles. The fair increased its security budget by 25 percent, although admittedly some of the jump was due to labor costs. Not only does the fair have to keep up rising law enforcement wages, but the fairgrounds is about 10 miles from the Florida White House – President Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort – and when the president is in town, due to security concerns, there are fewer off-duty police personnel available for the fair gig.

The fair kept the same “minor policy where they have to be escorted by a chaperon who had to be 21 and over. We're very security conscious. We did notice that last year the kids were coming earlier than 7:00, which is when the restrictions went into effect. This year, we made it 5:00. We didn't get any complaints, and we had zero incidents.”

Wade Shows

The Wade Shows near-record setting midway featured 85-rides, about the same as previous fairs. Wallsmith said not only did a new spectacular ride make its South Florida premier, but Wade Shows expanded its welcoming vibe through new amenities. “It was the first year for the Kraken, which had its North American debut. But what Frank [Zaitshik] did with the look of the midway was spectacular. He calls it gingerbread. We had more rest areas, umbrellas, flowers, planters, it was very comfortable place to be, like a mall. He really knocked it out of the park this year.”



The fair also showcased 136 food stands. While fair standards like funnel cakes and corn dog remain staples,. “we had a couple of new ones. We have all the favorites, and we have great relationships the vendors, who all want to stay on the cutting edge. A new vendor from South Carolina had soft tacos, with shrimp and Jambalaya fillings. One of our biggest sellers was Pickle Barrel Sirloin Tips.”

Imagine The Future

The Fair's marketing theme – Imagine The Future! – invoked the STEM emphasis of its main attraction for 2025: a collection of 15 interactive "Science Fiction, Science Future" exhibits housed in the Expo East building. Designed by Scitech out of Perth, Australia and produced by Imagine, the demonstrations included robotics, Virtual & Augmented Realities and AI. Related futuristic programming including a Foods of the Future tour and two Electronic Dance Music nights.  “We had a very nice exhibit, it was a traveling exhibit, very interactive. We wanted something that appealed to a broad range of folks. It was a little more interactive than other attractions, but it emphasized science and education, which is what we are all about. It was fun for all groups, but we weighted towards the kids and students.”

The fair's marketing budget was increased to $460,000, about 10 percent more than last year. “The mix of spending was similar to 2024, with 37 percent spent on digital with the remaining allocated to TV, Radio, Billboards, and other traditional media.” He said.

Social Media was now handled by a full-time staff member whose job is solely social media marketing. “We are the most successful with social media this year, It's the easiest and fastest way to communicate with your guests. We ran a lot of food videos, it's pretty effective. You want to create FOMO (fear of missing out), which we did.”

He pointed out the secret of having a full-time social media manager is having them work all year long. “You have to engage people in the 11 months of the year that the fair is coming up, building up anticipation and participation. Then when the fair is on, you engage people differently, but it is really a 12 month year job.”
Wallsmith credits the reinvigorated social media presence in 2026 for setting ticket purchasing records. “ The advance sale of both admissions and ride tickets increased by 11 percent over last year's totals with our flash sale showing a 50 percent increase over last year. Our overall online sales increased by 23 percent over prior year totals. About 56 percent of our advance ticket revenue came from outlets while 44 percent was sold online. Online sales have been growing faster than outlet sales for the past several years showing increases year over year, but smaller increases than online ticket sales.”