FAIRLEA, W.Va. - The lines reminded him of 1982, when he was working a ticket booth at the West Virginia State Fair - when Alabama came to town.
Alabama, the popular country music band, had attracted so many fairgoers that Tom Campbell's ticket booth had almost been overrun. It actually shook a little bit from the "crush of people."
On Saturday, Campbell - a member of the fair's board of directors - walked amongst the throngs of people who'd lined up to purchase tickets to the 91st West Virginia State Fair. By 1 p.m., the lines stretched from the ticket booths into the parking lot.
"We're out here learning," Campbell said, explaining that he and other staffers were trying to make adjustments to shorten the lines and decrease people's wait times.
On the state fair's opening weekend, several variables had combined to lengthen the lines in which people waited and increase the time it took them to get from their cars to the carnival rides.
Several West Virginia school systems started classes earlier this year than usual, meaning the fair saw big crowds on weekends and a relative dearth on weekdays. Pedestrian traffic was being routed through a new underpass beneath U.S. 219, and there was a new traffic-flow pattern being used in an attempt to accommodate all the motorists on the road.
Rodney Morgan and his family left their Pineville home at 8:30 a.m. Saturday - at about 1 p.m., he was still standing in the ticket line. He estimated that he been in line for about an hour and a half.
"This is ridiculous," Morgan said to another man, complaining that he usually only has to wait 15 minutes. The other man nodded his agreement and compared Saturday's lines to the crowds that had gathered at the Superdome in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
"Why would they want to change it?" Morgan said, glancing to his left at the next line he'd have to wait in - new ticketholders who were being funneled through the underpass and into the fair.
Morgan guessed that state fair traffic was up this year because of the school districts that had already started classes. His daughter, Kendra Morgan, could attest - the fourth-grader's school, Baileysville Elementary and Middle School, in Wyoming County, started classes on Aug. 10.
According to the West Virginia Department of Education's calendar, 28 of 55 county school systems resumed classes last week. Most Kanawha County schools began classes on Aug. 10, and Greenbrier County resumed instruction on Aug. 6.
"I'm gonna guess Monday through Friday [of next week] will be really easy to get in, because everyone is in school," Kelby Faulkiner said as he stood off to the side while his child waited to get on the carnival ride, "Full Tilt."
Faulkiner, who lives in nearby Maxwelton, said it took his family almost two hours to travel 8 miles to the fair, park, buy their tickets and gain entrance to the fairgrounds - but it could've taken even longer. He was lucky, he said, to overhear another person suggest buying tickets online, which allowed him to go straight to the admission line, at the underpass.
"If the school's are gonna go back so early," Sherri Faulkiner, Kelby's spouse, said, "they need to change the date of the fair."
West Virginia State Fair CEO Kelly Collins said it's challenging to change the date of the fair in relation to school calendars. A date change could mean overlapping with another festival or event, she said, and some state fair vendors might not be able to accommodate a different schedule. Collins, in her first year as CEO, said the fair has always started on the second Friday of August.
"It's been a very long time since I've seen it this crowded," Collins said, adding that the nice weather had combined with public schools' early start dates to drive Saturday's attendance up.
As of 3 p.m., she didn't have any specific attendance figures, but Collins, who'd been parking cars for three hours, said all of her parking lots were full and that staffers were creating more space to accommodate motorists. They'd only had two ticket booths open at 8 a.m., she said - by 3 p.m., they had 11, including two locations near the livestock area. And, she said, staffers were creating a cash-only ticket line to reduce wait times.
Purchasing your tickets online ahead of time is a good way to reduce your wait time, Collins said. You can buy them by visiting the State Fair of West Virginia website, www.statefairofwv.com/tickets. You can print paper copies of your tickets to take to the main gate, where the ticket barcodes will be scanned. Alternatively, you can purchase tickets with your smart phone, and state fair staffers can scan the barcode on your phone's screen.
Collins, who'd also been handing out water to those waiting in line, said she and her staff were working to create new lesson plans to attract schools - that might continue to start early in August - to take field trips to the fair.
Campbell, who walked through the long lines talking to folks who were waiting, listened to complaints and thanked people for their patience, and he tried to remain optimistic about the large crowd.
"It's an awesome problem to have," he said.
The 10-day West Virginia State Fair continues through Aug. 23. For more information and a schedule of events, go to www.statefairofwv.com or follow @SFWV on Twitter.
Reach Wade Livingston at wade.livingston@wvgazette.com, 304-348-4869 or follow @WadeGLivingston on Twitter.