Del Mar Fair Closes; 20-Day Run Attracts a Record Crowd

Carnival time in San Diego County came to an end when the Del Mar Fair closed on July 4 with a fireworks display and record-breaking attendance for the seventh year in a row, officials said Thursday.

Fair spokeswoman Diane Scholfield said 1,083,572 fair-goers, the largest crowd ever, flocked to the county fair during its 20-day run. Last year’s crowd held the previous record of 1,076,982.

She said this year was the seventh straight year of record crowds, with each year surpassing the one before it.

This year’s fair ran a day longer than the usual 19-day run. Scholfield said that was done to accommodate the Independence Day holiday in the fair schedule.

Despite the record total attendance, average daily attendance for the 20 days was down, from 57,000 last year to 54,178 this year.

Scholfield said she had no explanation for the decrease in average attendance. She said attendance could have been hampered by other events going on and schools being in session seven days into the fair’s run. She said the $1 increase in admission prices also could have caused the lower attendance.

“People just don’t seem to be coming out like they normally do. Other festivals I’ve talked to have said they’re also down in attendance,” Scholfield said.

“But we’re not so much concerned with record attendances,” she said. “It pleases us more when we have a good, safe, entertaining fair.”

Although attendance was down slightly halfway through the fair’s run compared from last year’s numbers, Scholfield said the large crowd Wednesday pushed the fair’s attendance over the million mark and into the record books.

More than 77,300 people attended the fair’s finale on Wednesday, the fair’s busiest day this year, Scholfield said.

“That large of a crowd on July 4 is extremely unusual. We think it’s because the Fourth of July was in the middle of the week,” Scholfield said. “People stayed home for the holiday and were looking for something to do.”

She said the July 4 attendance was a record high for an Independence Day crowd in the history of the fair, which has been running continuously since 1947.

On the fair’s slowest day, 34,365 people passed through the turnstiles, Scholfield said.

“This year’s fair was a very traditional, family-type of agricultural fair,” Scholfield said. “The emphasis was on having fun, earning blue ribbons, eating cotton candy and all those stereotypical county-fair types of things.”

She said no major injuries or crimes were reported.

“Any time you have a million people come through a fair in 20 days, the potential to have at least one major incident is probably fairly high,” Scholfield said. “We had an extremely smooth-running fair with good weather.”

Scholfield said the June 26 Willie Nelson concert drew the largest crowd--22,000--to a grandstand show. The most popular rides were the Wild River water flume and the carousel.

She said about 30% of all fair-goers attended events held in the race track infield, used this year for the first time. “We’re pleased with that number. It was a brand-new area, and things always take a while before they catch on,” Scholfield said.

Next year’s fair will run from June 19 to July 7, Scholfield said.

The 22nd District Agricultural Assn., a state agency, runs the nonprofit carnival that covers 350 acres. The fair receives about half of the fairgrounds’ $25-million budget, with profits going to pay for the next year’s fair. The fair dates back to 1880 and was the first agricultural fair in San Diego County.