It’s No Picnic Getting to and From the Fair

Gridlocked motorists trying to enter the Orange County Fair on Saturday night to see the Three Dog Night concert probably were not humming the group’s hit song “One Is the Loneliest Number.”

About 8 p.m., the California Highway Patrol issued a SigAlert for the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway, advising motorists to take alternate routes because fair-going cars had traffic in all lanes of the freeway at a standstill.

“Friday night’s attendance was 5,000 over last year’s, so we expected it to be a real mess,” Costa Mesa Police Lt. Dennis Cost said Saturday night.

Police and fair officials said the traffic was usual for the fair--”pretty bad,” said one, but manageable.

“There have been no major incidents, but people do get a little tensed up in this kind of traffic,” Cost said.

By 6 p.m., the fair parking lot was full, and hundreds were stuck in traffic trying to find a way to alternative parking.

Traffic was rerouted to Orange Coast College, where people could park and walk to the fairgrounds at Newport Boulevard and Fair Drive. Later in the evening, many were moving into the residential areas to park on the streets, where parking usually is restricted. However, police were not issuing citations Saturday night, Cost said, and some residents had called the police station to complain.

The SigAlert for the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway continued through most of the night. It was issued indefinitely “until the fair lets out, and then it will be going the other way,” a CHP dispatcher said.

Fair spokesman Don Escalante said the first Saturday night of the fair traditionally offers big entertainment and draws a big crowd, especially between 6 and 9 p.m. As a result, traffic backs up on Newport Boulevard and the freeway.

The first Saturday night of the 96th Annual Orange County Fair was no different. By 9 p.m., 44,907 came through the gates, many of them to see the Three Dog Night shows, which were at 7 and 9 p.m. Attendance was down from last year, when the first Saturday night drew a crowd of 49,539. But the freeway and nearby surface streets were just as congested.

“It’s usual Orange County traffic, which is no picnic, unfortunately,” Escalante said.

Costa Mesa police had two extra motorcycle traffic officers on duty to manage the fair traffic, “but it usually handles itself,” Cost said.

“They’re just watching. There’s not much they can do,” he said.

Cost added that things were particularly calm, contrasted with last year, when on the first Saturday night of the fair, Paul Gary Nussbaum of Rolling Hills Estates was shot during stop-and-go, merging traffic near the end of the freeway near the fairgrounds.

Nussbaum was on his way to visit a friend in Newport Beach and ran into heavy fair traffic on the freeway. While he was driving on the shoulder of the road, he was shot by another motorist, Albert Carroll Morgan of Santa Ana.

Morgan was convicted of attempted voluntary manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon and firing at an occupied vehicle. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay Nussbaum $10,000 in restitution.

As a result of the shooting, Nussbaum was paralyzed from the neck down.

The first two days of this year’s fair attracted more visitors than last year. Friday drew 40,042, a record for the first Friday. The total for the first two days was 55,823. Last year the two-day total was 51,640.

The fair, which opened Thursday morning, continues through July 17. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to midnight.

Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for children 6 through 12. Children 5 and under get in for free. Parking costs $2.