Countywide : Fair Attendance on Par With ’89 Figures

The Ventura County Fair’s general manager said Monday that overall attendance at this year’s 12-day event was “about even” with that at last year’s, even though previously stated figures for 1989 were substantially higher than those announced for 1990.

“It’s difficult to compare this year’s overall figures with those that were reported in the past,” said Michael Paluszak, who replaced former General Manager Jeremy Ferris in December.

Paluszak said last year’s overall attendance figure of 306,040 was “a bit inflated.” That figure was included in the fair’s official 1990 press brochure.

This year’s total attendance was 273,525, said Teri Raley, a spokeswoman for the fair. That figure is 32,515 less than last year’s announced total.

This year’s paid attendance was reported as 182,027--1,568, or slightly less than 1%, more than last year’s 180,459.

“You almost have to have the same people reporting overall attendance numbers every year if the comparison is to be meaningful,” Paluszak said, explaining why he contends that overall attendance was not down this year.

“You can accurately track paid attendance by the turnstile clicks, but you can only estimate how many people get in with passes, and it’s impossible to know what method was used to make the estimates in previous years.”

Paluszak’s assistant manager, Arthur Amelio, agreed that overall attendance estimates “may have been on the optimistic side” in the past.

Revenue totals for the fair were not available Monday, but Paluszak estimated that the event’s four major money-generating activities--ticket sales, carnival rides, concessions and parking--all showed improvement this year.

Earlier this month, Amelio said this year’s revenues were expected to exceed $2.3 million, compared to last year’s $2 million. Still, the fair, which lost $500,000 in 1989, was not expected to show a profit this year.

The fair’s closing night Sunday was marred by a power outage across about a third of the grounds at 8:30 p.m. The mishap occurred when a cluster of metallic balloons broke loose and became entangled in overhead lines.

Several exhibition halls were without lights until about 10 p.m., two hours before closing time, because of the resulting short circuit, Amelio said.

No one was hurt, and the fair’s carnival rides, which were powered by independent generators, were not affected, Amelio added.

This year’s biggest fair crowd was 32,456--25,135 of it paid attendance--on Aug. 18.