Attendance to the Missouri State Fair continues an upward trend despite rodeo clown incident.

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Intro:	Reports released today show that the controversy surrounding a Missouri rodeo clown at the state fair may have helped numbers, despite the negative nature of the incident.
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Wrap: A rodeo clown imitating President Obama garnered national media attention, but numbers released today show the incident didn't stop the fair from having a three percent increase in attendance.

Missouri State Fair Director Mark Wolfe says the incident may have even been an incentive for certain citizens to attend.

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Description: "I'm sure there were some people who felt like they wouldn't participate because of that and some that did participate because of it. So I guess it just depends on how you look at those things."

Wolfe says he doesn't condone the incident and he hopes to shift the focus back to agriculture at the fair next year.

Reporting from the state Capitol, I'm Jessica Mensch.

Intro:	Numbers released today show that the controversy surrounding a stunt pulled by a rodeo clown at the Missouri State Fair didn't stop the fair's rising attendance.
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Wrap: Despite national media attention expressing outrage at the rodeo clown who imitated President Obama at the fair this past year, attendance was still stronger than before.

Missouri State Fair Director Mark Wolfe says he is grateful that the incident didn't seem to affect numbers according to figures he announced today.

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Description: "It's not something that we condone. It certainly wasn't something expected or planned by any means although there seems to be some thought out there that it was and that's not the case at all. You know, we dealt with that and we're going to move on."

Wolfe says they are looking at options such as stricter employee contracts, to protect against a similar incident happening in the future.

Reporting from the state Capitol, I'm Jessica Mensch.

Intro:	Numbers released today show the Missouri State Fair's attendance continued to increase despite the controversy surrounding a rodeo clown this past year.
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Wrap: After an incident involving a rodeo clown imitating President Obama, the Missouri State Fair garnered a lot of negative attention in the media.

However, Director Mark Wolfe says attendance was still up three percent from last year.

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Description: "I guess there is always that possibility or that opportunity for somebody to do something that really doesn't go along with what the fair's about and that's kind of what occurred this past year."

Wolfe says he is looking into ways to guard against this kind of behavior among his employees in the coming year such as stricter contracts.

Reporting from the state Capitol, I'm Jessica Mensch.