COSTA MESA

The 54th annual Fish Fry festival offered crowds more than the usual weekend fun at its new home at Orange Coast College. “It’s like starting brand new,” said Brett Smith, second vice president of the event’s sponsor, the Costa Mesa-Newport Harbor Lions Club. For more than 50 years, the celebration had been held at Lions Park, he said. The larger field behind the college gave more than 30,000 people in attendance through the weekend extra room to enjoy the carnival rides, games, dancing and concerts. In the old days, before the carnival rides, the main attraction was the food that gives the festival its name, Smith said. “We have people come back every year just for the fish dinner,” he said. The net proceeds from the festival support local charities, he said. Since 1946, the Lions Club has raised more than $2 million through this event, he said.