Attendance Up for Fair’s First 3 Days
Attendance for the first three days of the Orange County Fair was up 10% over last year.
This year’s growth was in keeping with the yearly increase in popularity of the fair since the extension of the Costa Mesa Freeway in 1992 made it easier to drive to the fairgrounds.
Lynn Howes, sponsorship and promotions coordinator for the fair, said last year’s opening weekend attendance might have been hampered by a thunderstorm and by the bombing in Atlanta during the Olympics, which might have made people afraid to go to large gatherings.
The fair attendance of 143,291 for Friday, Saturday and Sunday was the largest total since the event was increased from 12 to 17 days in 1992.
Close to half of those at the fair got in free on Friday. Free admissions fell to 36% Saturday and 32% Sunday. The largest weekend crowd was Saturday’s, at 58,440. The largest crowd ever to visit the fair numbered 82,435, on Saturday, July 27, 1991.
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