‘95 Fair Sets 103-Year Gate Mark : Entertainment: Lagging attendance surged Sunday evening. New rides helped. The Ejector Seat was a thrilling crowd-pleaser.

Dwight Christenson spent the last day of this year’s record-breaking Orange County Fair the same way he spent the first, listening to his umpteenth musical on the Centennial Stage, where he monitors sound equipment.

From his vantage point Sunday in front of the stage, Christenson, a 25-year-old worker for Fresno-based Speeda Sound, has seen, heard and sometimes endured hundreds of acts during the fair’s 17-day run, which this year attracted 695,246 visitors--the highest number in the event’s 103-year history.

“Surprisingly, there are some good acts,” Christenson said as he popped in a cassette tape which immediately activated six loudspeakers that boomed out a rousing can-can for dancers from La Danse studio in La Mirada. “Here we go again.”

From dance acts to barnyard animals, this year’s fair had more variety and better rides, said many fair-goers who on Sunday enjoyed a rodeo, 11 hours of mariachis and a final concert by singer Vikki Carr.

While overall attendance early Sunday was running slightly lower than last year’s, said Lynn Schultz, a fair spokeswoman, a last-minute burst of visitors made this a record-breaking year.

For example, the fair counted 13,148 people who came through the turnstiles by noon, compared to 13,438 at this same time last year. As of 9 p.m., however, total attendance had reached 695,246--nearly 20,000 more than last year’s total of 675,515 and higher than the previous record of 685,294 set in 1992.

“This year we had a new ride operator and people have told us they really like the new selections,” Schultz said.

One of the rides, the heart-stopping Ejector Seat, a reverse bungee catapult, did suffer a mechanical mishap during the fair run that stranded one rider for about an hour more than 120 feet in the air. But he was brought down safely by firefighters. The ride, shut down for inspection, reopened three days later to lines of customers.

Cindy Kilmer, 38, of Hesperia, who was with Ed Burg, 39, of Huntington Beach, rode the Ejector Seat on Sunday but Kilmer had to immediately sit down.

“I’ve never done anything like it,” Kilmer said, recovering. “We went up and that was OK. But it was coming down I didn’t like. My stomach. . . . Actually I did it for [Burg], it’s his birthday.”

“She actually told me on the ride, ‘I wanna get outta here!’ But it was too late,” Burg said. “We could have gone around and around but I didn’t tuck in. I made it easy for her.”

Burg and Kilmer said they went to the fair for only two reasons: one, to ride the catapult and two, to buy a popular vegetable shredder, which Burg said he’s going to use to make salsa.

“I love to hear the hawkers sell their stuff here at the fair,” he said.

Tom Hayward, 41, of Anaheim brought his family, including wife Lila, 34, and her sons, Christopher Adams, 14, and Nick Adams, 11.

“This is our second day at the fair in a row,” Hayward said. “We were here all day yesterday and now we’re pretty tired.”

While Hayward spoke, he rested his feet on a special platform that for 25 cents offered an electro-massage that buzzed and hummed.

“It feels pretty nice,” Hayward said. “It kind of makes your feet tingle.”

“The rides were pretty good this year, a lot better than last year,” said Lila Hayward, the thrill-seeker of the family who said she rode Ejector Seat in the dark of night.

As for food, Hayward said they ate fresh, roasted corn and had homemade bread.

“We had all the fried stuff yesterday. The zucchini was excellent, you should try it,” he said.

Back at Centennial Stage, La Danse instructor M’el Nadeau, 39, was back on the microphone introducing four young dancers all under 10, and coaxing the audience for a special round of applause because it was the youngsters’ first performance.

“I think their dancing was just great,” said Jeri Lee, visiting from North Carolina. “Of course, my granddaughter was in the show you know. Her name’s Natalie.”

After their performance, young Natalie, who was garbed in tights and a gold headband, sat chatting with her dance group.

“I was scared at the beginning,” Natalie said. “But after we danced I felt really good. I want to go on the rides now.”

Fair Gain

A last-day surge pushed attendance to an all-time record high at the 103-year-old Orange County Fair.

1995: 695,256 (Attendance at 9 p.m. Sunday)

Source: Orange County Fair