As managing editor of On Thursday, the second day of the K show, Messe Dusseldorf reports that about 43,000 people came to the fair. That brings the total to about 67,000.
How does that compare to the last show, in 2004? Well, on the second day of the show that year, about 36,000 people passed through the gates, for a two-day total of about 57,000. So that means attendance is about 17.5 percent higher this year.
This apparently means the strike by some train workers in Germany that started Thursday at 2 a.m. did not have much of an impact on K show attendance. The strike affected about half of the Deutsche Bahn trains in Western Germany today, but none of the local trains that take most out-of-town visitors to the show.
Plus, the fact that riders knew the strike was coming well in advance gave everyone time to prepare an alternate route to the show.