Los Angeles County Fair officials say unseasonably mild weather and lower admission prices are helping draw larger crowds than last year.
The 66th annual county fair, which began Sept. 10 and will end Oct. 3, had drawn 25,417 more people as of Tuesday than it attracted the first 11 days of last year’s event. Attendance at the fair, which is the state’s largest, was 579,796 as of Tuesday.
Historically, sweltering heat common to Pomona in the early fall has been a deterrent to many would-be visitors, fair spokesman Sid Robinson said.
In an effort to bolster attendance in the wake of last year’s lackluster numbers, fair officials slashed admission prices from $10 to $8 for adults and from $5 to $4 for children older than 5. The new prices reflect those charged in 1991, when attendance hit an all-time fair high of 1,612,097.
Last year, when ticket prices were increased to help offset construction costs, attendance plummeted to 1,239,003.