Large Crowds Come Back to Fair After 2 Lean Years

If you build it, they will come . . . eventually.

Over the weekend, large crowds finally returned to the San Fernando Valley Fair, an annual event that had suffered through lean times in the two years that followed its eviction from Devonshire Downs and relocation to the Hansen Dam Recreation Area in Lake View Terrace.

At noon Sunday, the fair’s final day, lines formed at rides and food stands. The dirt paths running through the fair were thick with kids and adults. While the fair didn’t draw quite as many people as it did during its Northridge heyday, the estimated 50,000 who showed up over the four days represented a 67% increase over last year.

“This fair has been a lot better,” said John Watkins, who presided over a ball-toss game in the midway. “It’s really been a strong crowd.”

Other workers agreed that business was substantially improved, having started slowly on Thursday and increasing every day since. At Vito’s Pasta Ria, owner Rick Luevano was having one of his best fairs ever, selling more than 500 pizza slices a day.

Fair officials attributed the increase to a communitywide promotion campaign, better weather and the simple fact that more people found out that the event had moved east.

“Now that we’ve got a new home here, people had to get acquainted with it,” said Sal Buccieri, the fair’s president.

In 1988, the last year that the fair was held at Devonshire Downs, it drew 60,000 people. But Cal State Northridge’s planned expansion forced the event out. The following year at Hansen Dam, attendance dipped to 30,000. Attendance was similarly low in 1990.

Despite the disappointing turnout, results from a recent poll by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) suggested that Lake View Terrace residents wanted to keep the fair in the neighborhood.

So this year, Buccieri and his staff campaigned throughout the Valley, sending letters to chambers of commerce and homeowners associations. They put up street banners. The night before the fair opened, local politicians and community leaders were given a tour of the grounds.

“We had to get people pumped up,” said Henry Eshelman, a fair spokesman.

Word seemed to spread through the nearby community.

Raul Castro, 26, who was leading his 4-year-old son, Christopher, toward the rides, lives a mile from the dam and said his neighbors were talking about this summer’s fair, something they hadn’t discussed in the past.

“Last year, I don’t think anybody knew about it,” said Castro, who had returned for a second year. “Now we’re glad it’s here. It’s something different.”

Matthew Schneiderman of Encino read about the fair in the newspaper and brought his three children for the first time.

“It looked like something interesting to do,” he said. “A nice country fair.”

Los Angeles’ unseasonal weather helped out, keeping the dusty fairgrounds comfortable. Last year, temperatures reached 110 degrees. Sunday’s high was 96, and the preceding days were cooler.

The event was also rescheduled so that it didn’t coincide with the recent air show at Van Nuys Airport. Fair officials believe that last year they lost a good number of customers to the competing attraction.

Meanwhile, Juan Barragan, 11, of Northridge was already thinking about the future. He’d spent all morning on the rides, especially “the blue one that goes around and around.”

“I’m going to tell my parents that we should come back next year,” he said.