The Park County Fair may feature a grandstand concert with a different genre of music next year.

After another country music concert with only lackluster attendance, members of the Park County Fair Advisory Board agreed last week to pursue a popular regional cover band focused on the music of mostly 80s rock, such as Van Halen, KISS, Motley Crue, Queen, Journey and Aerosmith.

Hairball, based in Minnesota, has been growing in popularity throughout the region, said Commissioner Scott Mangold, one of the county’s representatives to the fair advisory board.

Both he and fair board member Christy Muecke said the band would attract people from as far as Billings, which would give a boost to a grandstand event that has struggled the last few years.

“They're a regional band, they'll bring in thousands of people,” said Mangold, who added that they’ll even dress up as the various bands when they’re playing their songs. 

“It'll bring people in,” Muecke said. “Those stands were so empty, it was sad.”

The concert headlined by country singer Tyler Rich brought in $8,760 but cost $23,745 (between the two musicians and the stage) to bring in. In all, 463 people purchased tickets to the show, which was actually up from 421 for the Tris Munsick headlined concert the year prior. That concert and stage setup cost more than $27,000 and brought in a little over $5,000 — in the last two years the concert nights have cost roughly $50,000 and brought in just $14,000.

The stadium includes 1,872 seats. Even the concert by popular Wyoming country artist Chancey Williams in 2022 only sold 1,125 seats. Concerts have been popular in the past — for instance, in 2019 Ned LeDoux and Chancey Williams actually brought in more than $37,000 and made $2,000 after expenses. 

Muecke said she had talked with Hairball before the 2024 fair and said she could have brought them in for $20,000.

Park County Events Coordinator Billy Wood said he had recently reached out and the cost to bring the band in next year would range from $25,000-$40,000. While the concert took place Friday in the last fair, previously the concert has often been on Thursday to try and get a bigger name band for a discounted rate.

There was a lot of good news from the recent fair as well, as overall attendance was up over the year before, pig wrestling made money in its second year back at the fair, and the other grandstand events did well enough that advisory board members agreed to proceed with bringing back truck pulls and figure 8 as well, along with the always-sold-out demolition derby, which brought in $18,000 in revenue for the fair even after a 50/50 split with the organizers.