Organizers of the Placer County Fair just can’t catch a break.

For at least the past four years, summer’s fiery blast-furnace has gone into overdrive right in time for fair season, depressing turnout. And this year was no exception.

“I just felt we did a good job at reaching the community,” said Brock Wimberley, the fair’s chief executive. “Then we have that heat go and take all that effort and make it moot.”

Turnout for this year’s fair, which ended last Sunday, got off to an excellent start Thursday and Friday, with turnout up by about half over last year, Wimberley said.

Then came Saturday, and with it 104-degree heat. Sunday was even worse, at 108 degrees, nearly a record in the valley.

Even though the fair installed new misting, put up shade structures and stayed open later, those kind of numbers pushed turnout down by as much as 25 percent on Sunday compared to last year as people huddled at home, in malls or movie theaters.

All told, about 23,000 people turned out for the fair, the county’s 72nd. That’s flat when compared to 2008, and way down from numbers that were three times that in the 1990s.

“You can’t do anything about it,” Wimberley said of controlling the weather. “You just schedule the entertainment as best you can.”

Still, he said people liked what they saw, with a mixed-martial arts contest and live shark exhibit particularly popular.

“Exotic animal attractions always seem to draw a crowd,” he said. “People love to see that kind of stuff.”

But at least one fairgoer said there was more than just the weather affecting this year’s fair.

Roseville resident Naomi Foss wrote in a letter to the editor last week that the fair suffered from a lack of excitement.

“I was quite disappointed with this year’s fair,” she wrote. “Growing up there was at least excitement in the air when everyone knew the fair was being set up. A parade from Woodbridge Park, local businesses selling ticket books, posters on store fronts, etc.”

Wimberley said the decline is partly due to increased entertainment options in the area and a shifting demographic that’s more urbanized.

“Getting people to come out seems to be much more difficult these days,” he said. “Back in the peak of our attendance Roseville was a different place.”

Wimberley said fair officials are considering going after a “big-name” entertainer next year or perhaps making the event an evening-only affair.