It’ll cost you more to visit the O.C. Fair on weekends next year
Many weekend visitors to the Orange County Fair next year will have to dig a little deeper into their pockets to enter the summertime event in Costa Mesa.
Under a budget plan approved by the Fair Board on Thursday, general admission tickets on Saturdays and Sundays for the 2017 fair will be $14, up $2 from this past summer.
General admission tickets are sold to guests ages 13 to 59.
The exception will be a weekend half-price ticket available for $7 before 1 p.m. That discount replaces the $3 “rise and shine” ticket previously available on the first hour of operation on weekends.
Fairgrounds officials said the $2 general admission increase will not affect weekday tickets, which will continue to be $12, or the everyday $7 tickets for senior citizens and children. Special discounts such as free admission for active-duty military personnel and veterans also will be the same.
“The increase in our adult-only price for the weekends was driven by the operational need to incentivize weekday attendance,” fairgrounds Chief Executive Kathy Kramer said in a statement. “In addition, this slight price increase will help offset increasing operational expenses.”
Opening-day admission policies also will change. Instead of free admission and free parking for the first hour, the board expanded the free period to noon through 3 p.m. for the opener of the 2017 fair on July 14.
Fair Board member Barbara Bagneris said the change should help prevent the flood of people who descend on the fairgrounds to catch the free opening, which has created operational challenges.
“People don’t have to rush in here,” she said.
The changes were approved on a 7-0 vote, with board members Sandra Cervantes and Robert Ruiz absent.
Additional money earmarked to fix memorial
The board also approved spending an additional $250,000 toward fixing “Table of Dignity,” an artistic memorial dedicated to agricultural workers.
The project, first unveiled on Labor Day 2015, has been closed off and is under renovation due to structural issues.
It was originally supposed to cost $90,000, but after the construction problems became apparent earlier this year, the Fair Board in September approved paying a Sacramento-based group $27,500 to come up with renovation plans.
“Table of Dignity,” conceptualized by artists Ricardo Mendoza and Josh Sarantitis, originally contained two portals built from rammed earth, a process involving tightly packed soil. Between the portals was a 14-ton boulder with a wooden table embedded in it.
Twitter: @BradleyZint
