Hot Dogs, Stars, Livestock Help Lasso an Attendance Record for the County Fair

Plenty of hot dogs and cotton candy and a variety of live entertainment, including big-name stars, professional rodeos and 4-H livestock shows, contributed to an all-time attendance high for the Orange County Fair, which closed its 10-day run Sunday.

About 424,500 people visited the 94th annual fair in Costa Mesa, surpassing the 1981 record by some 55,600. Warm, sunny weather and perhaps a desire to stay close to home prompted the record-breaking crowds, said Clinton Hoose, fair board president. Last year, 362,907 went through the fair gates.

This year’s record was buoyed by Saturday’s attendance of 67,499, the highest attendance for a single day. Sunday’s attendance by 6 p.m. was 40,071.

Low Admission Prices

“It’s been a combination of things, including promotion of livestock to big-name entertainment and rodeos. I’ve been here every day and everybody seems to be happy and out to have a good time,” Hoose said.

He also credited the fair’s advertising media blitz and relatively low admission prices--$4 for adults, $2 for children--with helping to attract “thousands and thousands” of motorists, creating traffic gridlock Wednesday night on nearby streets.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, the California Highway Patrol issued a traffic advisory on the Costa Mesa Freeway because of bumper-to-bumper traffic caused by fair- and beach-bound motorists.

“It will end when the fair ends,” said a CHP spokeswoman.

Police Discuss Gridlock

Meanwhile, Costa Mesa police were still talking about Wednesday evening’s gridlock, when 34,451 people crowded into the fair, many to see the ‘60s surf-rock band, Jan and Dean, at the same time that 14,000 attended the Beach Boys concert at the Pacific Amphitheatre, also on the Costa Mesa fairgrounds.

“We had thousands. I mean thousands!” exclaimed Lt. Clifford McBride of the Wednesday traffic jam.

“We had people who were caught in traffic coming into the police station (on Fair Drive) to drink water or use the bathroom facilities. They would then walk back out and get in their cars which were lined up,” McBride said.

Unlike the 1-million attendance figure for the recent 18-day run at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona, the Orange County Fair figure is for only 10 days. Also, the Pomona figure includes attendance at the nearby thoroughbred race track.

During some of the busier days at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, it was strictly elbow-to-elbow, said Norb Bartosik, fair general manager.

“Yet with all the people, we had no major incidents,” he said.

Although the fair conducted an exit survey of its customers to help in its marketing next year, the results won’t be known for several weeks.

This year’s run had 10,000 exhibits, 300 commercial exhibits and 55 food concessionaires.

Live entertainment included the Righteous Brothers, Larry Gatlin and the soul group Tower of Power, which closed the fair Sunday night.