How are Nordic Fest Crowds Estimated?

Photo taken along Water Street in Decorah following the 2008 Nordic Fest parade

After the first Nordic Fest in 1967, headlines announced stunning sized crowd of 37,000 attended. News reports from some successive Nordic Fests reported even larger crowds. 

How was this number determined? 

There is the challenge of most Nordic Fest events not being gated and/or requiring an admission fee, which means there are not generally tickets or hard data to be officially counted. While pieces of Nordic Fest like the Historic Homes Tours and the early Fly-In Breakfasts had official attendance data, this does not capture many who are out enjoying non-ticketed activities each year. 

It appears that from 1967 through 1982, the Decorah Area Chamber of Commerce, which recently celebrated its 90th year, used available tourism tools and tips to estimate the number of people in Decorah each day of Nordic Fest. Daily estimates were combined to come up with the estimated attendees each year. 

Here's an example of one year's estimates, from the 1971 Nordic Fest:

• 12,000 people in town Friday
• 32,000 people in town Saturday
• 10,000 people in town Sunday
• 54,000 total estimated attendance, 1971 Nordic Fest 

Although this plan means many attendees were estimated more than once, this is consistent, for example, with the gated Iowa State Fair where daily attendance totals are counted and combined, even if there are people who attend all ten days of that event.

Even with the standards for estimating used by the Chamber for the first 16 years of Nordic Fest, the process was an absolutely inexact science. With that said, the streets of Decorah remain quite full during each Nordic Fest, especially when the weather cooperates, as it often does.  

Even using much more conservative estimates for attendance, Nordic Fest has likely had at least one million people enjoy its non-commercial ethnic fun over the course of nearly 50 years. Impressive!