Just curious regarding attendance figures

[CHICAGORANDY]

I've always wondered how EAA calculates attendance? Do they simply add up the number of daily wristbands sold and factor in the number 7 for each weekly one to arrive at a "total attendance" figure? I'm quite certain no one is counting each person who passes though a gate or arrives by plane. Does the total count include all the volunteers x 7?

NOT a complaint or criticism on my part, I'm just kinda wunderin' as I wind down from nine days of tram conducting and aviation bliss......... and I'm finally done unpacking and doing all my laundry - lol

Does anyone know for sure?

[mazdaP5]

I know for sure that I have also finished unpacking and doing my laundry.

[jowens]

I believe Randy is correct that the attendance figures are wrist bands times the days on the wrist band, not the number of people in attendance. This seems a bit shady that myself and two kids week-long wristbands are counted as 21.

[FlyingRon]

Volunteers and other non-paying attendees still get wristbands that are accounted for, so yes they get counted the same way paid attendees do.
For some odd reason, the last two years, I've been tasked with giving out the ones for the Vintage Flight Line operations (mostly because I'm usually in the operations building, I wrote all the volunteer logging software, and they trust me not to lose several thousand dollars worth of wristbands.

[Airmutt]

Actually for large festivals and events where a turnstile count is impractical it’s not that an uncommon practice. I guess there is a driving need to be the “largest”. Personally I don’t care what metric is used whether it be planes, people, parked cars or porta potties. I would like to hear two sets of number (1) total weekly and daily passes issued and (2) a real estimate of the daily attendance. Hey, it’s Oshkosh and I’m still gonna attend regardless of what the numbers are.

[Auburntsts]

For me the total attendance figures are basically propaganda and don't have any real meaning for me as an attendee. If I worked for an Osh business or the Osh Chamber of Commerce, or was a show vendor I might be more interested. As it stands, I'm personally only interested in the number of aircraft and camp registrations as that's how I gauge how successful the show was, but admittedly those numbers don't look anywhere as impressive to the non-flying public.