CANFIELD — Less than 24 hours might have passed since the 179th Canfield Fair’s six days of merriment wrapped up for the year, but George Roman still had time to reflect on its successes.

Roman, the fair’s director, was back at the fairgrounds Tuesday as its maintenance crews, food vendors and exhibitors displaying plants, crafts, tractors and animals cleaned up and squared things away ahead of next year’s festivities.

The fair amassed approximately 284,000 people over its six-day span, an attendance number Roman deemed to be “very good.” It represents a 15,068 increase over last year. Sunday, which is traditionally the busiest day of the fair, had the highest attendance at nearly 70,000.

Roman noted Thursday’s weather as a problem, which bumped down attendance to 28,850 for that day — 1,230 less than last year’s total of 30,080.

“Thursday, we had a little of a hitch with the rain, but other than that, everything came through,” Roman said. “With the weather not being too hot, it made everybody a lot more comfortable and relaxed, and they enjoyed walking around.”

In terms of attendance at the fair’s two major concerts, country music singer and songwriter Brad Paisley drew a crowd of 6,000 Sunday. Famed Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd drew a near-equal crowd of a “little over” 5,000 on Monday, according to Roman.

“It was an amazing show, I mean, Lynyrd Skynyrd — I had my doubts about it, but when I walked out at the end, it was fantastic,” Roman said.

Roman said the fair didn’t have any major problems operating, noting that they have their minor glitches, but they were “very pleased” with the attitudes of fairgoers who came to enjoy the fair.

Roman said organizers “always have” changes planned for the fair, adding that fairgoers come up and make suggestions that they take to heart, putting them to pen and paper and checking their feasibility.

“Usually they’re right, and it just takes us a little time to make sure we get it better for them,” Roman said. “Just little things, mostly, they can’t get in this building or no one was there for us to talk to — just little things that bothered them, and we’ll make that right.”

NEW TECHNOLOGY

A new feature to the fair this year was going with an all-online registration, with Roman recalling the pushback received by exhibitors in arts and crafts and flower growing.

Roman said they had “mini-workshops” for exhibitors, with organizers helping them through the registration process.

“Once they got through it, they were very pleased; it was a very simple process,” Roman said. “They were just concerned about their ability to do it.”

Roman said the decision to switch to an all-online registration ultimately worked out for both younger and older demographics, noting that some wondered when organizers would adopt such a format.

“We did get a bunch of younger people coming because it was so simple for them to operate, and a lot of our food vendors, it was a simple process,” Roman said. “It worked well, I think it’ll be even easier and bigger and larger for us next year.”