For the Gazette-Times

ALBANY - "This was a really good day," Linn County Fair Manager Terry Wood said Thursday afternoon as he watched the crowds in the "Familyland" area.

Thursday was opening day at the 2007 Linn County Fair. The day began with senior bingo and a senior ice cream social, and it ended with a capacity crowd to hear veteran rocker Eddie Money in concert.

Fair & Expo Director Randy Porter didn't have specific numbers, but he said carnival ticket sales were up from last year and he figured food sales were as well.

Around 8 p.m., he said, the Albany Fire Department started limiting the number of people who could get into the fair for capacity reasons. A fire marshal stood at the gate and let someone in only when someone else left.

Porter said the parking lot was packed as well, to the point where his crew just tried to direct traffic instead of taking money for parking.

He said the crowd was larger than at any point during the 2006 fair, when temperatures climbed above 100 degrees all four days. In contrast, the temperature didn't get above 80 Thursday.

"I've been here for nine fairs, and in my nine fairs there's only one other time I've seen a crowd like that," Porter said. "That was for (late country singer) Chris LeDoux."

Prior to the Eddie Money concert, the performers in the Familyland area had good crowds for their shows. There was no shortage of kids trying to pull hundreds of pounds of weight at the Kids Pedal Tractor Pull, and the Rhinestone Ropers and Jest in Time Circus of Fools had plenty of people to choose from for audience participation.

Other notes from the fair Thursday:

• "That's a lot of fries. A lot of grease," said Brandon Bond of Albany after buying a "Monster Frybrick" from Oliver Family Concessions. His son got a large grilled cheese sandwich from the same booth, and his wife, Debbie, came to the table with a French bread pizza.

• "This is a harder trick after knee surgery," said "Topper" Todd Victor, one of the two clowns in the Jest in Time Circus of Fools act as he climbed a 10-foot ladder. Victor's dog, Ticker, followed him up the ladder. Victor said later this was his first show after knee surgery in April. Victor and his wife, "Li Li Zucchini" Lizette Gey, perform three times a day.

• "You almost saw a cowboy get bucked off a horse lying down," said Dan Mink of the Rhinestone Ropers cowboy show during his act. His horse, Lucky Joe, had lain down and tried to roll over onto his back while Mink was still on him.

• "It usually works out that the younger kids win," said Bob Bailey III of the Kids Pedal Tractor Pulls. Bailey and "Cowboy" Rob Blausey give kids, ages 4-12, a chance to pedal a small tractor with hundreds of pounds of weight behind it for 22 feet. All kids get a prize, regardless of how much weight they pull or how far.

The fair continues through Sunday.